Danganronpa: A New Game
by mayurie
Summary: Sixteen of the so called Ultimates, trapped in an abandoned village in the middle of nowhere. Who brought them here, and what kind of objective do they wish to achieve? "Welcome to Mayoiga, the village of the lost! And the only way out, is getting to the tower!" Can they all reach the tower? Or will they leave their fellow Ultimates behind? The choices are up to them. (SYOC CLOSED)
1. Prologue 0-0

**PROLOGUE - THE START**

* * *

Black.

At first you tried to open your eyes, but as you did so, the sudden assault that came from the light in the room blinded you so much you closed your eyes again—

"Ah, what's wrong?"

You opened your eyes in surprise. The voice clearly came from right in front of you and just as you thought, another face was right on yours, golden eyes blinking in confusion as they slowly backed away and sat down on a chair. You quickly realized that the one in front of you was a male, his slicked back black hair shining under the light in the room. He smiled at you and tapped his pointer finger down—when you looked towards it, you saw a sheet of paper under his finger.

"You're still have to fill the form, you know?"

"Form...?"

A laugh bounced in the otherwise silent room. Without looking up, you know that it's belonged to the man in front of you. After all, there was nobody else but the two of you here. Wait, how did you know that—

"Still listening to me, dear contestant?"

You looked up to see him smiling as though he was amused. Maybe he was, but you wouldn't know that—you didn't even know who he is and what were you doing here. But what he said earlier—contestant...? You didn't know what he was talking about and it possibly showed clearly on your face as the man tilted his head slightly, staring at you with a weird expression... Wonder—no, amazement?

"Ah! I see, I see!" He laughed as he slumped down on the table, obscuring your view of the sheet of paper from earlier. You averted your eyes—his stare was starting to disturb you. "It seems that you don't remember anything about the assignment, huh."

You furrowed your brows, trying to remember about something—anything, but it was useless after all. You shook your head, and the man laughed yet again.

"Don't worry, little lost one—if you can't remember it, then please let me explain again from the start. Is that alright with you?"

You looked back at him, doubt filling your mind. You really didn't know what was going on and the way he acted was really suspicious, but he did said that he would explain. "...yes, please."

"Excellent!" The man suddenly lifted his previously slumped upper body from the table and gestured to the sheet of paper, smiling down at you as you felt the need to look down at the paper. "Now if you would listen carefully, little lost one..."

* * *

 **FORM**

* * *

 **BASIC**

 **Name:** ["This section is simple yes—just fill the name of your character." "My... character...?" "Yes, yes! The character that you are going to submit for the Danganronpa game." "I thought you said you would explain..." "But I am!"]

 **Gender:** ["Another simple one! Just fill the gender—either male or female, alright? We're not that confident to be writing about non-binary or any other gender beside those two, you see..." "Wait a second... Who do you mean by 'we'—" "Next!"]

 **Sexuality:** ["Well, of course you know what this means right?" "..." "I see that you're either reluctant to do it, or embarrassed to!" "...please stop, I understand..." "As you wish, little lost one. Do remember though, you do not have any other option beside straight, homosexual, or bisexual for this—as you see with the genders earlier."]

 **Age:** ["Yes, age! We're giving free reign to the contestant to choose their character's age, but please do remember that the setting is that of a high school. If you put an age beside 16-18, you have to explain the reason." "Setting... The game's setting?" "Marvelous! I see that you're starting to remember." "No, I'm just... Nevermind."]

 **Ultimate Talent:** ["This one here is of course, a classic requirement. The Danganronpa game features sixteen Ultimate students, usually trapped somewhere and forced to do—well, you know it!" "..." "..." "Um, excuse me but, I think you're forgetting that I can't remember anything..."]

 **PERSONAL**

 **Physical Appearance:** ["This one is quite clear, yes?" "I... suppose so..." "Anything is allowed, even the one you human call 'anime hair'! But of course when I say anything, don't overdo it with rainbow and sparkles, if you please." "I won't..."]

 **Clothing:** ["Again, anything is allowed! Well I do say that but, no nude allowed—we don't need that kind of fanservice! Understand?" "Y-Yes..." "Splendid! Oh, and also, please do keep your character's clothing so that it makes sense with their talent. It's simply ridiculous to see a diver with a lab coat, really..." "Um, you've seen that...?" "..." "..." "Next one."]

 **Personality:** ["Easy—just make at least a paragraph filled with your character's personality. And remember what the assignment was, little lost one; this character you're making is based on your own self. One might say that this character is you." "My...self..." "I'm glad you understand! Now, let's move to the next one, shall we?"]

 **Personality Traits:** ["Traits...?" "Ah! Well that one is simply a list of traits, to summarize your character's personality. My personality, for example, is Charming – Intelligent – Sinful, like that! Of course, you're not just limited to three personality traits." "..." "..." "..." "Hm? What's wrong?" "N-Nothing."]

 **Likes:** ["Short and simple, just how I like it! At least three, if you don't mind." "Alright..." "Nothing much to say here so let's move to the next one shall we?"]

 **Dislikes:** ["The same with likes, at least three. Ah yes, I forgot to mention it but anything is allowed, yes. After all, people have all kind of likes and dislikes so it's totally understandable." "Mhm..." As for me, my dislikes would be something like: wasabi, BDSM, and rope." "Um..." "Yes?" "...nevermind."]

 **Fears:** ["Fears..." "Indeed, fears. Please put your character's fear, or fears—or if your character has no fear somehow, then feel free to empty it." "Is it even possible to have no fear...?" "Well, who knows. I do, in fact, have a great fear of someone..." "Um... you look really pale..." "Nonsense! I am always this pale."]

 **HISTORY**

 **Background:** ["A story of your whole life, to put it simply. Well, your character's life. As I said before, this assignment is about making a character based on yourself." "Myself..." "Indeed. Oh and also, please do keep in mind that this Danganronpa's game theme is second chance." "..." "You look confused, I see. The short explanation is that either your character did something bad in their life, or someone did something bad to them. And they wish for a second chance. You would know, wouldn't you?" "..."]

 **Family:** ["This here is simply a section to put a list of your character's family members. Oh yes, and do keep it restricted to those who mattered to the character. And don't forget to describe their relationship with your character, is that clear?" "..." "..." "..." "I'll take that as a yes and continue."]

 **Friends:** ["Another similar one. In this case, please put a list of your character's friends. Important friends, of course. We can't really put all the friends they have into the game, after all." "Game...?" "Ah, you talked again, little lost one. Yes, the game I have said earlier." "Danganronpa game..." "I see that your memory is still as strong as ever!" "'As ever'...? What do you—" "Next!"]

 **Future Dreams:** ["Future dreams, aspiration, you name it! Simply describe what does your character want to be in the future, or what do they want to do—well, I'm sure you get it! Do you?" "..." "Nodding means yes, yes? I understand!"]

 **Secrets:** ["A secret or two, anyone must have them. After all, all of you are not a saint." "All of us...?" "Ah! What I meant was of course, your character." "..." "Do you doubt me?" "Who wouldn't..." "Simply splendid! You do have a sense of humor after all, little lost one."]

 **DANGANRONPA(...?)**

 **Motive to Kill:** ["A motive or two, or perhaps three. The things that could possibly make your character kill, as simple as that." "K-Kill...!?" "Ah, that's right. Your memory is missing, my apologies." "Y-You just remember that now...? But what does... 'k-kill' mean—" "You see, little lost one—one cannot ask to many questions." "..." "I'm glad you understand!"]

 **Motive to Die:** ["..." "Oh, please refrain yourself from looking at me like that! I'm not the one who made this form, I'll have you know. But there's one thing you need to know, that everything is questioned for a certain reason. Please don't worry though." "..." "Little lost one? You look pale, what's the matter?" "..."]

 **Innocent Behavior:** ["The innocent behavior here refers as your character's behavior when they're innocent of murder—what would they be like during investigation and the trial." "..." "Hmm, she has stopped responding..." "..."]

 **Guilty Behavior:** ["The guilty behavior is exactly as it says, the opposite of innocent behavior. Hence, you would fill it with what would your character like during investigation and the trial, the same as the section before. Do you understand?" "..." "Ah, I wonder if I broke her or something...?"]

 **MISC**

 **Quotes:** ["In here, just put something that your character would say, please. At least three dialogues, if that's alright with you." "..." "Still not responding, huh—oh, but your hand is still moving and writing. That's splendid! And convenient, considering there's only one more thing left. You truly are the Ultimate Student after all, Miss Suzuka Haruzome." "..."]

 **Others:** ["This is it, the final section. Feel free to put anything that you think hasn't been mentioned in this form, or if you want to give us some advice that is fine as well." "..." "Well then, I see that you have no comment at all, Miss Suzuka. That is fine." "..." "It's been quite a pleasure to meet you. Now, since we'll never meet again...

"Good luck."]

* * *

 **RULES**

1\. Send your character through PM. No matter how good your character is, if it was sent in the review, I wouldn't accept it even if you sent it to my PM afterwards. At that point, everyone would already be spoiled by your character. Also please title it "Danganronpa: A New Game - [Character Name, [Talent]"

2\. As usual, not accepting any kind of Mary Sues. I think that's a given but well, just in case people don't get it. And please, at least put some kind of effort to your submission. Think carefully, would this talent really be an Ultimate? Does this backstory actually make sense? Stuff like that. Don't be half-assed, kay.

3\. I'm limiting the characters you can send to three characters per person. I'd only accept one character, but in the situation where I received less submission than what I expected, I could possibly accept two of your characters.

4\. The deadline is two weeks from now, so June 16th. Of course, I'm not that tight on schedule so if you want time extension then PM me and I could give you some time to make your character after the deadline has passed. I'll take some time from the deadline to decide who I'm going to accept in my story. **UPDATE:** To hell with deadline. Yes, you hear me. I'm changing this shit to **June 23th** now. Because I can.

5\. Please, don't send me a character that is currently in an active story, especially if it's a Danganronpa SYOC. I know personally that re-using character is faster in term of submitting a character to someone, but I'm not really sure if I can write a character that has made appearance in another story. Although, rejected character is totally fine.

6\. Do remember that the theme of this story is second chance. You need to make your character fit with the theme, or the chance of them getting in is low. Of course, you're free to decide what kind of second chance does your character want. Did they failed at something important and want another chance? Did they got into prison and wanted to rewind time? Or something else? Be creative—I'm looking forward to see what you guys can do!

* * *

 **A/N:** Oi oi, mayurie's here. You may know me or don't know me, who knows. But yeah, I've decided to make my own Danganronpa SYOC right here! I was honestly hesitant to publish it at first, but with the cuisini fettuccine from the Ultimate Helping Hand, Pow a.k.a. **PainX65** here on this very website, I made up my mind. Go check him out people, he has an ongoing SYOC called Scrapyard of Talent!

Anyways, that's pretty much it. Oh yeah before anyone asked me if I'm going with 2nd person perspective while writing this story—no, I'm not gonna do that. I was just doing it with the prologue but that's it. Maybe. Just trying out some stuff to make this unique, if you know what I mean. So yeah, feel free to ask me if there's anything unclear on the form—either review or PM me, yeah? I'll put the form on my profile, of course. Good luck everyone!

* * *

 **SUBMISSION STATUS**

* * *

\- Ultimate ?

\- Ultimate Psychiatrist

\- Ultimate Sukeban

\- Ultimate Nail Artist

\- Ultimate Mountain Climber

\- Ultimate Geneticist

\- Ultimate Horologist

\- Ultimate Private Eye

\- Ultimate Historian

\- Ultimate Bodyguard

\- Ultimate Nature Photographer

\- Ultimate Linguist

\- Ultimate Doctor

\- Ultimate Baker

\- Ultimate Prosthetist

\- Ultimate Eggplant (as the one who put it here, I'm sorry)

\- Ultimate Analyst

\- Ultimate Botanist

\- Ultimate Escape Artist

\- Ultimate Ghost Idol

\- Ultimate Backup Dancer

\- Ultimate Spelunker

\- Ultimate Toymaker

\- Ultimate Neurologist

\- Ultimate Ballerina

\- Ultimate Ten-Dancer

\- Ultimate Psychic

\- Ultimate Shadow Prince

\- Ultimate Therapist

\- Ultimate Construction Worker

\- Ultimate Yamato-e Artist

\- Ultimate Paintball Shooter

\- Ultimate Gravedigger

* * *

\- Male x18

\- Female x14

\- Eggplant x1

* * *

 **More A/N regarding submission:** I'd appreciate it if I can get more aggressive/reckless character, a character related with food theme in any kind of way, antagonistic/asshole character, and a leader-type character. I would recommend to tone down the kind character a little, and also less tragic backstory if you don't mind; I've said that the whole second chance theme doesn't have to be anything serious, and it really is true.

However, all the stuff above are only a suggestion of mine—in the end this is SYOC, a submit _your_ own character. Everything you do is up to you, and I don't mind some creativity and unique ideas. I look forward to read your submission, and thank you for reading this!


	2. Interlude X-1

**INTERLUDE - THE ROOM [PART #1?]**

* * *

The black-haired man smiled as he knocked on a door and waited silently as he held a thick brown envelope in his left hand. The silence was deafening, the hall empty of anyone beside himself; sometimes he wondered if he was actually the only hard-working officer in here and everyone was still lazing around in their own quarter, gossiping about the latest trend of a certain game that the 'boss' was working on.

He waited until precisely ten minutes (he loved his watch, perhaps too much) of waiting had passed before he knocked on the door again, giving it three firm knocks before he reached the doorknob and twisted it clockwise while pushing the door inside. A familiar, sharp snap of a closed book greeted his ear and he noticed that a hard-cover book was on the L-shaped office table right across of him; perhaps he came at a wrong time.

"My apologies for disturbing your reading time—"

"Keep it short, understand? This better be important, or else." The voice made him shuddered with slight fear as he noticed the threat at the end of the sentences, but he kept his smile on his face and nodded before turning around and closed the door slowly to not make any noise—he really didn't want to make the boss' mood worsening any further.

"The forms are here." He simply said as he walked closer towards the table and placed the brown envelope. As he raised his head slightly, he can see the back of a black executive chair greeting his sight, the figure of his boss hidden behind the tall chair. "We've received quite amount of it, but as expected, they're not as diverse as you wished them to be."

A hum was the only reply he got before his boss snatched the brown envelope, too fast for him to see; throwing the envelope for the man to catch afterwards before they started to hum another melody that he was unfamiliar with. The only clue he had gotten from his boss was that it was an old song from his childhood—whatever that was supposed to mean.

"Let's see, let's see!" The voice changed into a more childish tone; he can never understand what's going on inside his boss' mind, after all. He blinked as he saw the chair spinning, unfortunately too fast for his eyes to follow. It's a wonder that his boss had never puke after doing their usual quirk when they're excited."Gay, gay, sadist—oh boy, I like this guy!—gay, potential edge lord, goody-two-shoes, some altruistic shit... Huh, I don't see the leader type that's gonna die first... Or the quiet loner who's probably an emo deep down or even the cute and innocent loli, not even the shy and anxious type in sight—"

He sighed as his boss started to ramble about the 'characters' they received so far; the vulgar words that started to come out from their lips when they were talking about a cliché, sad background would prove to make even the most fearsome sailor turn into a real-life tomato, surely. He was starting to think that his boss was in possession of many different personalities, considering how they just kept changing every time the two talked for even a short two minutes.

"—I knew we said 'second chance', but jeez, loosen up a bit people! Not every single background story needs to be so sad and tragic—oh wait, shit, they weren't making those shit up; those shitty background stories were their own life—which makes it even more worse!" The 'boss' cackled as they threw the papers they're holding to the air; the man sighed as he knew that he would be the one cleaning up the mess. "I knew the world was fucked up after all—I mean, these 'Ultimates' were just asking to be trapped in some kind of messed up game! What kind of naïve people would just agree to give up all of their private information because it's some kind of damned assignment from school, huh?! Retarded little shit; all of them! And speaking of retarded little shit; boy do I wish to have one!"

The man sighed yet again; this was turning to be a mistake on his side; the initial thought of getting his work done faster so he can relax afterwards was just a jinx that he unfortunately thought of, after all. He lifted his left hand to see the leather watch on his wrist; just five minutes had passed while his boss was rambling. Not that long of a time period, one might say, but he honestly thought that it had been an hour since he arrived in this office.

He just wished that this rambling was going to end soon... Meanwhile, he can collect the papers scattered on the ground, he supposed. A not-so-hard job; as long as the boss didn't end up stepping on him while he's crouching down on the floor again—he just jinxed himself again, did he not.

—this was going to be a long day ahead of him.

* * *

 **A/N** : Yep, I'm back; no matter whether y'all want it or not. Anyways, this chapter is honestly just my way to explain to you guys about what kind of characters (and background story, to certain extend) I've received so far and at the same time make it damn vague to be fair to everyone—or is it just that? Well, guess we'll see huh. So yeah, nothing much about this chapter, though I guess this also works as a way for me to show my writing style to you guys. But if you're pissed at me for being too damn vague, come at me in the PM, yeppers. I'm always in the mood for confrontation guys (not really no I'm a sensitive crybaby don't actually come at me).

And also, I'm still waiting for more submissions, of course! The deadline is still a long way to go, but I'm highkey excited to write this down, guys. Let's just hope that excitement is gonna last till when I've accepted the official cast, cause there's no way I'm abandoning this hopefully unique story (I'm sure it's not) after planning so much with again, the Ultimate Helping Hand a.k.a. **PainX65** , who helped me a lot because I'm just a mess in general. Again, go check his story again if you're interested cause honestly, he's awesome as both a writer and a pair helping hands.

All that jazz aside, I hope you guys are still interested in this story because like I said before, I'm excited to write this until the end! Despite my bad grammar, if you guys haven't noticed. Which is totally apparent here cause I don't have beta reader or nothing for this. Do come at me with your character, reviews, criticism, advice and suggestion—or heck go PM me just to say hi or something cause I'm a lonely bunny. Yes, I just called myself a bunny, I know. Anyways, that's all from me. See ya!


	3. Prologue 0-1

**PROLOGUE - A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING [PART #1]**

* * *

She can't breathe.

More exactly, it's hard for her to breathe. She opened her eyes—only to see darkness welcoming her sight. Her chest felt tight, her stomach churning as the awareness of being trapped inside of something came to her. The result of herself trying to spread her arms to the side (with a considerable amount of effort—she felt like she just woke up from a long sleep, her body stiff like it hadn't moved in years) was that they hit something hard and most likely made of wood; she flinched when a wood splinter embedded itself in the skin of her finger.

(Where...)

She tried to dig into her memory to find out what had happened before she ended up here, but the result of that was just a splitting headache that made her groaned in pain and squeezed her eyes shut as her head felt like it was being pounded by a hammer. But at the same time, her chest tightened for another different reason as she, again, attempted to dig deeper into her memory—it's all blank.

(I... I can't remember...)

Her breath started to quicken and her throat suddenly turned dry as she opened her eyes and blinked a few times to adjust them to the darkness, but the feeling of tightness remained in her chest as she tried again and again to find something—anything, in her memory, about what had happened before she ended up here. But no matter how hard she tried, no matter how she wished to remember—

"I can't..." The girl whispered under her breath, her eyes darting left and right in panic. Her hands touched every nook of the box, trying to find anything that could possibly be a clue for a way out—and while a wishful thought, perhaps, a way for her to remember what had happened that could cause her to get trapped inside a wooden box. "I... I need to get out... I need to—"

(—I need to know what was happening before this. I need to get out. I... I need to survive.)

She pushed the wood right above her in a useless attempt to get out—or so she thought. The top of the box gave in quite easily, creaking with a sound that was uncomfortable but not bad enough for the girl to flinch before it clattered onto the ground a few times before stopping. Silence was what happened next, the room being devoid of people beside the girl, or at least that was what she thought.

The girl waited for a few seconds before she got up from her position, just now realizing that she had been laying down inside of that box—no, not just a box. She stood up before she looked back to see what was trapping her, but then proceeded to pale significantly as her breath hitched. Considering what she was seeing at the moment, however, her changes did made sense.

After all, the thing that she was still in, technically speaking, was a symbol of something dreadful—something that most people wouldn't like to be associated with. The sleek, polished wood. The slightly wrinkled white sheet that was encasing the inside of the 'box'. And strangely enough, the symbol of an opened book with a pencil, all in the color of black; being on a white sheet, it was pretty clear that the person who made this wanted people to see the symbol. With the description compiled in her mind, it was obvious to her—

—that she, Suzuka Haruzome, was trapped inside of a coffin.

Suzuka gulped and bit her lower lip in confusion before she walked backwards in her shock, only to trip over the wall of the coffin and fell down right onto its lid that she dropped down onto the ground earlier in her attempt to escape. She flinched and her hands roamed all over the lid in instinct—only then she noticed the window-like part on the coffin and also a carving of her first name in a neat kanji writing; the kanji 'suzu' for bell, and 'ka' from _chikara_ for power—all combined to her name, 'Suzuka'.

While the name was something she was surprised with, the 'window' on the coffin wasn't that unusual with how a kind of Japanese coffin was designed so that people could only see the peaceful face of their loved one who had departed. Which reminded her—the symbol; an opened book with a pencil on it. She was quite sure that the location of that book symbol was right on the spot where the head of the deceased should be.

With that thought in her mind, she got on her feet and stepped down from the lid of the coffin before she bent down and took the lid, placing it back right on top of the coffin. She opened the window-like part carefully to prove her theory—and right away, she can see that the symbol was right in front of her sight to see. Her lips quirked upwards in satisfaction as she proved her own theory; the symbol was placed so that people can see it right after they opened the 'window' of the coffin.

But that wasn't really an important fact at all; she shook her head in order to clear her head. The most important thing now that she was out of the coffin (she shuddered at the thought) was that she needed to figure out where is this, and what had happened.

Suzuka pursed her lips and closed her eyelids in order to focus. The first fact was that she was placed inside of a coffin, unconscious. The obvious question was of course; why a coffin? Her stomach churned again when she thought of the possibility that this could be something that one of her classmates did, but she shook her head at the silly thought. There wasn't any way that they could do that—kidnapping her would take too much of their time and trouble, and they could have thought that her parents would have the power to kick them out from the school if they got caught. So no, this wasn't something that her classmates did.

Another possibility filled her mind, but then she furrowed her eyebrows at how weird it sounded like. That she was already dead; certainly, that was something impossible. After all, she was breathing, thinking, moving—she took a quick survey of the room she was in while thinking about this, but she froze in place at the sight that greeted her eyes.

Fifteen other coffins (she counted them twice already) were placed down on the room; all sixteen of them orderly placed in two row of eight. All of the 'windows' on them are closed, fortunately for her. She squinted her eyes to get a better view of everything; there was a few names on the coffin, though she can only see the closest four to her.

—the coffin right on her right side had the kanji 'nao' for honest and 'ki' for feeling; Naoki.

—the coffin in front of her had the kanji 'tsura' for honor, and 'matsu' for end; Tsuramatsu.

—and the coffin on the right side of Tsuramatsu's had the kanji 'mu' for nothing and 'ga' for selfish; Muga.

Suzuka bit her lower lip and moved her lower jaw left and right; thinking. Think, think, think; there are in total sixteen coffins in this dark room, and she was inside one of them. She was in one of them, so logically thinking, inside of the other coffins—there would be other people. The girl wasn't alone here; there are other people. The thought should be comforting to her, and yet her chest tightened again for reason she didn't know about.

The girl thought of checking whether the other coffins had names carved on them, but the sight of darkness blending with the other area of the room stopped her in her track. She shook her head and decided to check the closest coffin—the one that had 'Naoki' carved on it.

Her right hand reached for the window of the coffin, but she froze as she thought of what was inside of it. Obviously it was a person, however—would they be alive, just like her? She balled her right hand into a fist at the thought that the one inside of the coffin could possibly be a peaceful face of someone deceased. But her fingers twitched as the curiosity in her head grew, and she put both of her hands on the window-like part of the coffin before opening it to see—

"Nothing..." Suzuka released the breathe that she hadn't even realized been holding in as there wasn't anything inside the coffin; well, not anyone deceased. A black symbol rested on the inside of the coffin that she can see—instead of the book and pencil that was on her coffin though, it was the symbol of some kind of bug; she wasn't knowledgeable enough about insect to know what kind, unfortunately.

The symbol on the other coffin was clearly different from her own, that was obvious. This, however, made the curiosity in Suzuka grew stronger—before she knew it, she was already right between two coffins that was in front of her earlier. The next coffin that she opened was the one on her left, the one with 'Tsuramatsu' carved on it. An unlocked lock greeted her sight, and she started to think about what was this all about.

Her symbol was a book with a pencil on it. The one who had Naoki on it (she assumed that it was the coffin of someone named Naoki) had some kind of bug that she unfortunately did not know about, while Tsuramatsu's had an unlocked—

"—lock," she mumbled while blinking a few times, her lips parted slightly. A sudden assault of memory came to her and she groaned as another headache came to her head. She held the right side of her head with her hand and crouched down before closing her eyes. It's all coming together; a flash of her home, another of her parents, her... brother, a pristine white envelope with a wine red seal—everything was coming back to her.

( _"Sis, a letter—you got a letter! Hey, open it now! Quick!"_

 _"Ah—um, why..?"_

 _"Because it's a letter for you, duh! Come on, open it!"_

 _..._

 _[You have been accepted in Hope's Peak Academy with the title of **Ultimate Student** —]_)

Suzuka opened her eyes suddenly when a loud sound disturbed her moment of flashback and the stillness that hung around the air. She stood up and tried to find the source—and once again, another _bam_ made her jump on her feet. This time the source was clear to her conscious self though; she glanced at the coffin on her right (the one with 'Muga' carved on it) that while lay still on the ground, made another _bam_ before someone's voice can be heard.

"H-hello?" A voice came from inside the coffin and Suzuka froze in her place in respond. She didn't recognize it at all—but it was pretty clear to her that it was a man's voice. "Um, is anyone out there? I... I can't get out..." The voice trailed in what seemed like worry, but Suzuka stayed still as she thought about what she should do about this. "Please... anyone..."

The girl bit her lower lip and crouched down near the coffin. She licked her dry lips and slowly reached for the window of the coffin—but suddenly changed her move and knocked the polished wood with her knuckles in a rhythm of three knocks that she was used to. She was replied with a knock—or a _wham_ , as she flinched when she felt the coffin's lid trembled as something (or someone) probably knocked on it—

"T-that hurts...!"

—and from the sound of it, someone. With their head. Hard.

Suzuka parted her lips to speak, but stuck them back together as her eyes darted all over the coffin to find something to talk about. Not a very effective method, considering that from the side, there wasn't anything to see beside the sleek and polished wood. The person (if it was even a person) inside of the coffin didn't speak again and the girl once again reached for the window of the coffin—and this time, she wriggled all of her fingers before she opened the window with both of her hands and pulled them back onto her sides.

A gasp of surprise greeted her as she backed away while still crouching; her back hit the previous coffin and she squeaked in reflex. Another gasp came from the coffin in front of her, and then there was silence—well, until a hand suddenly came out from the window.

"H-hey! Who are you?!" The one inside the coffin shouted in panic. Suzuka stared at the hand without saying anything; she really didn't know what to say. "Answer me...! A-are you the person who kidnapped me and put me inside this box?! Hey—"

"I-it's a coffin," Suzuka exclaimed without thinking. "You're trapped... inside of a coffin. Not a box."

"W-wha—why would you put me in a coffin?!" The one inside the coffin (she decided to just call him Muga, as it was the name carved on the coffin) asked loudly. She flinched at the loud voice. "Just who are you?!"

"Suzuka... My name, it's Suzuka Haruzome." She thought of introducing her title as an Ultimate, but felt that it would make her seem like she was underestimating Muga so she stayed quiet about it. "I'm a high school student... And no, I didn't kidnap you—you're wrong..."

The room became silent beside from the breathing of the (possibly) only two people in there. Suzuka licked her dry lips again as she waited for a respond from Muga, but even as a minute passed, he still hadn't answered her at all. So the girl decided to try to speak again.

"You said... Earlier, you said you can't get out." When Suzuka thought that he wasn't going to speak anymore, he surprised her with a hum. She took that as a sign to continue. "I was the same too... I couldn't get out. And I think, 'everyone' too..."

"'Everyone'...?"

"Everyone." Suzuka nodded even though Muga can't see her. She realized this a few seconds later and stood up from her position before she slowly walked to his coffin, her toes curling up in her pair of flats. When the girl looked down at the opened window of the coffin, she can see messy red hair that looked very similar to the color of wine, with a few strands on the forehead almost reaching a dull, cloudy pair of gray eyes that reminded her of steel... and made her blinked to make sure she wasn't staring at a dead body.

Muga stayed quiet and stared at Suzuka with his eyebrows furrowing, though the girl didn't notice this and continue to talk after she shook her head to clear her mind. "Counting your coffin and mine, there are sixteen of them inside this room..." Suzuka lifted her hands and raised the pointer finger of her right hand and the thumb of her left hand. "I was in a coffin earlier, and you're in a coffin right now... So, a coffin for a person... Sixteen coffins, mean sixteen people. That's—that's the logical conclusion..."

Only after she had finished speaking did Suzuka realized that Muga was staring at her, and in return she tilted her head slightly and stared back at him. There was an expression of... understanding, at least that was what Suzuka thought it was. Muga then let a small smile came on his face and he started speaking again.

"So... you were trapped too...?" Suzuka nodded her head and parted her lips to speak, but Muga's stare made her close them again. "That means... you didn't do any of this, right? You're a victim too?" His face seemed worried, but as Suzuka nodded again earnestly he released a sigh and his smile turned just a bit bigger. "I see. Sorry then."

Suzuka blinked a few times. "Sorry...? I don't know why are you apologizing to me..."

"For... you know; accusing you and all that..." The girl's mouth turned into a letter O shape, and Muga chuckled for some reason she didn't know; her fingers twitched as she started to speak again.

"You... um, chuckled?" Suzuka asked while furrowing her eyebrows as if trying to think. Muga nodded, though his lips twitched for some reason. "...why?"

"Well..." Muga trailed as he scratched the back of his head—with some difficulty, considering that he was still inside of a coffin. Suzuka continued to stare at him and he averted his eyes. "W-well, um, maybe you can help me out first, please...? I don't feel comfortable knowing I'm inside of a coffin..."

Suzuka blinked and touched the coffin with her pointer finger. "This coffin?" Muga nodded enthusiastically, but the girl just tilted her head. "Why can't you just tell me now...?"

"I promise I'll tell you after I got out. Please?" Suzuka closed her eyes and started to think, and after a few moment had passed she nodded. There wasn't anything that she can gain if she just left him alone, but if she help him then he would answer her question. So really, it was clear to her what she should do. "Thank you... Suzuka, right?" She nodded, making his smile grew. "I really appreciate it."

"I-it's fine..." Suzuka was a bit overwhelmed by everything, but she did agreed to help Muga out. Though that did brought something to her mind. "But you... you can't get out on your own?"

The unknown boy laughed a bit. "Isn't that obvious?" He asked to her, though the girl just blinked. She didn't think it was obvious, and perhaps Muga saw that thought clear on her face. He cleared his throat. "Well if I can get out by my own, I wouldn't ask for your help... you know?"

"Oh!" Suzuka's eyes widened slightly as everything clicked in her mind. "That.. that does make sense, yes." She was nodding to herself as she started to think again. She was able to open her coffin quite easily, but that wasn't seem to be the case for Muga. Perhaps there was a condition for someone to open the coffin—the girl would like to know what the condition was, considering she didn't do anything major; she just pushed the coffin's lid, but Muga knocked his head against the lid and it didn't even budge. "Okay—I'll... I'll do it."

Before Muga can even say anything Suzuka walked closer to his coffin and put her hands on the edge of the lid. She licked her lips and started thinking; her coffin was easy enough to open, but Muga was unable to do it to his own coffin even though she thought that he was probably stronger than her, and logically that would mean that his coffin wasn't going to be easy enough for her to open.

And of course, it was normal that she would immediately try to open the lid with as much strength as she had. But her logic had failed her, and instead of the struggle that she thought she would face, the lid came off as easily as it did for hers. If only she had tried to use her normal strength first—because the lid flew off and reached the ground (and not another random coffin with who-know-what's-in-there, fortunately), making a loud noise that made both Suzuka and Muga flinched.

Suzuka stared at the now fallen lid for a bit in wonder before she blinked and looked back towards Muga; now the boy was standing and smiling at her, giving the girl a clear view of what he was wearing.

The most noticeable thing for her was the white fur that was lining the black jacket that Muga was wearing. The jacket had half of its grey sleeves open, with some white lining on the jacket. A simple white T-shirt was covered by the jacket, while his bottom was that of a pair of dark pants that matched with his jacket, and a pair of comfortable-looking wine red running shoes. She would observe more but unfortunately for her, Muga laughed before he grabbed both of her hands while smiling.

"I'm free! Thank you, Suzuka!" The wine-red-haired boy exclaimed and squeezed her hands lightly. Suzuka flinched when he squeezed and proceeded to remember the wood splinter from earlier. Muga seemed to have noticed this as well, and he immediately released his hold. When the girl thought that he was going to leave her alone though, he gently reached for her right hand and looked at her thumb specifically. "This... it's a wood splinter, right? I'll help you take it out, okay? Where did it come from?"

"T-that's—i-it's... um..." Suzuka should be able to just say that the splinter was from where she tried to find a way out from her coffin and that no, she should be fine. But the closeness of Muga's face and her hand and the overwhelming feeling that she suddenly got from actually seeing the boy made her stomach churning and she proceeded to smack his hand away.

Muga gasped and for some reason Suzuka didn't know her stomach churned even more. But she didn't have the time to think; she wasn't thinking at all in fact, that she immediately turned away from Muga and proceeded to run straight into a door that she hadn't even realized was there.

The girl kept looking down all the way, and fortunately for her, she didn't run to any coffin. Muga's voice rang in her ears, the worried tone making her feeling sicker. But Suzuka didn't care about that—she was too busy panicking, and her mind clearly wasn't working at the time. And thus she ran to the door—ran to the exit, and ran to the world outside of the room. She didn't know at the time, but it was the start of her nightmare—

—a living nightmare, that she can't wake up from.

* * *

 **A/N:** And that, fam, is the end of the Prologue 0-1 that has a sucky title for it. Because I am self-aware that my naming sense sucked. No, really—it's bad. I don't even want to talk about it. But anyways, I'm totally not rushing this chapter before the deadline (which I'm changing to June 23th in hope that more people submit their character) so I can get this story on the top of the Danganronpa fanfic category so more people can see it and get interested and send their character. Totally nope, bob, pop. You get the point.

Also you may noticed but, except our dear Muga that we still haven't know the talent, there are other characters' names that I mentioned. And if you think that they are the accepted characters that still haven't made their appearance; you are absolutely, 100% right. So thank you and congrats for the creator of **Muga** , **Naoki** , and **Tsuramatsu**! So sorry that I didn't introduce the last two, but I swear I'll do that after this. Maybe.

Anyways, thanks for reading this far if you are an author's note reader. I'd appreciate any kind of respond; critic, review, favorite, follow, roast, opinion, advice, and others stuff I didn't mention. Maybe the chapter's pace was too slow? Maybe my writing sucked hard? Maybe I wasn't portraying Muga as well as I thought (which honestly speaking, wasn't much)? Or did I put too many unnecessary details? Please, tell me what you think about this chapter!

So yeah, thank you for bearing with this chapter. Again, I got the help of Ultimate Helping Hand, **PainX65**. Seriously guys, he's a great. Without him I'm gonna butcher this chapter with my horrible English skill. Like you see in this author's note that I didn't give to him because I don't want him to see this credit.

But yeah, thanks for you guys who are reading this story, and even more the ones who send a character or two, and the one who followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. Y'all are great and I'm not. Really, I'm happy that people are actually reading my story haha. That's all from me who's trying to make the words count to 4k—I mean, no. Nothing to see here. See y'all next time!


	4. Prologue 0-2

**A/N:** I'm alive guys! I'M ALIVE! Sorry for taking a long time to update... uh, let's just say a lot of stuff happened. I'm already getting some assignment from my uni too even though the first day isn't even at August 6th so yeah, I've been pretty busy with that. But hey, I tried my best to give y'all a long chapter! I hope that counts for something, haha. Again, sorry for taking so long.

A bit warning to everyone; when people introduce themselves (at least properly *glances at a certain boy from the previous chapter*) they'll be using the Japanese name order, so last name and then first name. Also I'm thinking of changing the rating to M once a murder happened because... well, you'll find out later I guess. Probably. Anyways, let's just not let me ramble and go right to the story! Hope y'all enjoy :)

* * *

 **PROLOGUE – A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING [PART #2]**

* * *

Suzuka gasped for air to breathe as she ran—she can felt her lungs burning with the sudden exercise, but she needed to get away. The physical touch that she got from Muga wasn't uncomfortable per say, but it was more about what it really implied to her. Her chest tightened again at the reminder but she grabbed her chest and squeezed—it wasn't the time to think deeply about what just happened. She needed to go; anywhere but here.

The girl grabbed for the rusty doorknob on her sight and rotated it before she pushed the door. She opened it with a loud _bang_ and ran out from the room and closed it again; she wasn't sure she was up to be chased at the moment. Her breath quickened slightly at the thought and she shook her head before she continued running—somewhere, at least where she can think straight and calm herself down.

Even while with head down and her sight on the ground, it didn't help the girl to not squint her eyes at the sudden change of the lighting; the sunlight that came from the sky was blinding enough and it didn't help that she just came out from a dark room she was starting to get used with. The scene near her brown-flats-covered feet changed from brown soil with a bit of green and grey here and there, to pavement with grey rectangle-shaped stones neatly placed making a curve, to the back of light brown hiking boots—

"Ah!"

Suzuka froze when she heard a startled voice from someone as she bumped into them. A strong, firm grip on her right wrist stopped her from falling, though clearly it didn't stop the girl from panicking. She noticed a charm bracelet in her sight as her eyes darted everywhere; various animals, plants, and a single lucky clover hanging on the bracelet as the charms, wrapping itself around a pale hand. When she looked at the person she was faced with small and thin pair of lips that was parted and slightly pointed chin, and realizing her mistake in thinking that the girl had the same height as her, Suzuka raised her sight slightly up again to look at the person she bumped to properly.

The girl in front of Suzuka was a ginger; her hair hung down her right shoulder, secured into a neat woven fishtail braid which was tied off gently by a green coloured ribbon, and a bright sunflower clip secured in her hair. Freckles adorned her cheeks while a pair of red-rimmed oval glasses balanced on the bridge of her Grecian styled nose. Her light eyelashes fluttered while the girl blinked and delicately curved eyebrows raised, misty grey irises inside almond-shaped eyes looking at Suzuka with a mixture of surprise and worry.

A squeeze on her wrist reminded Suzuka of the current situation and in response she tried to balance herself before standing properly without the other's support. She shook off the hand of the other girl without thinking and looked the other way, preventing herself to look at the unknown girl that just saved her from falling onto the ground and either possibly embarrassed herself or added a new addition to the list of how people can make fun of her.

"Um, hello...? Are you alright...?" The voice made her jump on her feet, but Suzuka nodded her head in response as she fidgeted on her spot while holding her right wrist. Her breath quickened slightly at the thought that another person just touched her—like Muga, the girl in front of her was real. She didn't know how to deal with conversation so she thought the best way to handle this was to just walk away, but the girl continued talking. "Your breathing just quickened—are you... perhaps hurt somewhere, or...?"

With the word 'hurt' mentioned, Suzuka was reminded with the throbbing of one of the fingers on her right hand and she turned her hand with the palm facing up so that she would be able to look at the splinter of wood that had embedded itself in her skin. A gasp of surprise filled her hearing and she froze when a hand suddenly appeared and cradled her right hand—the hand with the bracelet charm, the girl's hand. Though as if feeling her immense nervousness, the girl released her grip from her and took a step back, giving her the space she wanted.

"That is... a splinter, yes? It is not good to simply... you know, leave it like that..." The gentle tone and the general calmness that the girl generated calmed her down a bit and she took a deep breath before nodding in agreement, though she also took a step back to keep their distance from each other. "Ah, would you like me to... introduce myself, maybe? Would that makes you feel better...?" Suzuka nodded as a response and after another deep breath she looked at the other girl again, thinking that she at least deserved that much considering she gave her space to breathe.

The first thing she noticed was a camera hanging from a brown leather sturdy strap around her neck and the jewelled brooch in the shape of a tree that was attached to the light brown poncho embellished with red and navy cross stitches that the girl was wearing, covering a forest green polo neck jumper under it; Suzuka noticed that the sleeves were too long, reaching about halfway up the girl's hands. Reaching just past the girl's knees was a pair of crop beige coloured trousers with large pockets bearing the embroidered image of bluebell flowers, complemented by a pair of thick navy socks with tiny fox pattern.

A sturdy black leather belt with a silver buckle in the shape of a rabbit secured her lower wear, and after Suzuka nodded in satisfaction from her observation and raised her head slightly only did she finally noticed two grey straps around the other girl's shoulders, perhaps from a backpack. She would observe more, but unfortunately for her, the girl started speaking again.

"My name is... Kimura Natsumi, yes. Regarding my talent—" Suzuka perked up at this and she finally looked at the girl with interest; she had never met another Ultimate before. Natsumi didn't seem to notice the change though and just continued her introduction, "I am the Ultimate Nature Photographer... Nice to meet you, um..." She trailed off her words and Suzuka blinked; maybe the girl was forgetting what she was supposed to say, like her name—Suzuka parted her lips in realization and started speaking.

"I'm... Haruzome Suzuka—um, the school gave me the title of Ultimate Student...!" She accidentally raised her voice, but Natsumi didn't seem to mind. That, or the girl can hide her emotions quite well and was simply being polite. Either way though, Suzuka can now introduce herself as an Ultimate without having to worry that she would seem too proud of her title, considering the nature photographer did it first. Silence greeted her next and as the student thought that she screwed something up, she looked at Natsumi who seemed to be waiting for her to talk more and she fidgeted slightly. "T-that's all..."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **NATSUMI KIMURA / / ULTIMATE NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER**

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **SUZUKA HARUZOME / / ULTIMATE STUDENT**

* * *

"Ultimate Student... was it?" Suzuka nodded her head and apparently Natsumi took that as a sign to continue her line of questioning. "If you do not mind, maybe... you could elaborate more about it? I am slightly curious... as to what kind of things that you do... As in why Hope's Peak decided to recruit you." The other girl seemed to perked up as if remembering something and she added another sentence. "No offense intended, of course..."

"I... um." She hesitated to answer the question and bit her lower lip. The last part of the 'questioning' certainly calmed Suzuka down a bit, but it didn't help with the feeling of butterfly fluttering inside her stomach as she started to think for an answer. A second passed, and then two, three, four—time decided to not help her, and so Suzuka looked away with her face red as she hunched her back slightly. "I... don't know—I was just, acting ordinary...? School was easy as usual, and the teachers were nice to me... N-nothing new happened, so I... I don't know—"

"Hey, hey—it is fine... if you cannot answer." Natsumi's voice filled her ears and Suzuka looked back to see that the ginger was crouching down to her height—their faces were facing each other, almost touching, and in instinct Suzuka looked away and took a step back. "Can you do something for me? Breathe in... and out. Yes, like that... Breathe in and out, sweetie."

Suzuka didn't even realize that she was starting to hyperventilate, but she looked back at Natsumi as she breathed in and out before suddenly pausing. "D-don't call me 'sweet'—I'm n-not." She stated bluntly before looking down and went back to controlling her breathing, leaving Natsumi to blink.

"Alright... Haruzome-san then. You are doing good, just keep breathing in and out..." The nature photographer trailed before she stayed quiet—something Suzuka was grateful for. Eventually the girl managed to calm down, though she was still looking down at the pavement. "Are you alright now? Do you need anything—water, maybe?"

Suzuka shook her head at her response. She didn't see what kind of expression Natsumi was having at the moment but she was just glad that the girl understood things enough to keep their distance. The girl took a deep breath before she looked back up straight, and proceeded to blink at what she was seeing.

Right behind Natsumi, stood a big statue of a balance scale; the height exceeded both of them and the overall gold color of the statue really threw Suzuka off her guard. She wondered if that was real gold, though then she noticed another thing; the balance scale wasn't balanced at all—no, the left side of the scale was stuck on the ground as if something was weighing it down. Further observation gave the students the fact that there wasn't anything that weighing down the scale at all, which was quite weird. Maybe that was just how the statue was designed.

"Ah—the statue... yes? I thought that... it was beautiful, so I took pictures." Natsumi smiled at her while lifting her camera, showing it to make a point. Suzuka didn't have enough time to collect her thought to analyze whether the statue was beautiful or not so she decided to just stay quiet. "The balance scale was right in the middle of this place... I wonder if it has something to do with... our current situation..."

"Our current... situation... Ah..." Suzuka trailed, her eyes widening as she remembered about the coffins and the symbols—and also about Muga. She turned to look at where she was originally from and blinked as she saw what it was.

A big wooden building that looked a bit ran down was right in front of her sight. There was a sign on the upper part of the building and also on a small piece of wood in front of it, but apparently for some reason, whoever made the sign decide that it would be a good idea to write with black paint on a dark brown wood—added with the distance that Suzuka and the building had, the girl was unable to see what the writing. She tucked a reminder to visit the place later in the back of her head.

The student looked back at Natsumi to find the girl staring at her while tilting her head slightly. "I assume... you came to inside a coffin as well? From the office...?"

"Office...?" Suzuka didn't know what the girl was talking about but she assumed based on her own experience that 'the office' was the rundown building that she just saw. "The office—that building, um... the rundown one there?" She asked again while pointing at the building.

Natsumi nodded. "Yes, that building... What the sign said, anyway. I... checked everything after I woke up..." Suzuka raised her eyebrows subconsciously at that and the nature photographer seemed to take that as a sign that the girl was asking her to be more the detailed. "All the coffins too, yes... I wanted to make sure everyone is safe, in case there are other people... I checked everyone's pulse, of course... I thought it would be rude to just suddenly... wake you all up however, so I decided not to..."

(The coffin...)

That reminded her about Muga. From how he acted and the worried call earlier she assumed that the boy would immediately chase after her but that seemed to not be the case since he was nowhere to be seen. She never said she was good at assuming someone's personality though—people are hard, and that was one of the reasons why she wasn't good with them. Muga seemed kind enough, if not too overwhelming for her. She wondered if he was an Ultimate too; the boy didn't seem to be one, though then again none of them seemed like any.

Ultimates were a rare sight among the society, yes, but that was mostly because most of them weren't that well-known—at least not the ones whose passion didn't lie in the entertainment industry. Famous people are famous, yet that didn't mean that they were an Ultimate. The only way for someone to gain the title was to be scouted by Hope's Peak Academy; when you didn't get recognized while you were still in high school, no matter how skilled you are with the thing you did, then you were simply an individual with an exceptional skill. That was just how much influence Hope's Peak got in Japan—or even the entire world.

"So... Haruzome-san? I was wondering if I could ask you something..." The calming voice from Natsumi brought her back from her deep thinking and Suzuka looked back at the ginger and bit her lower lip. Her hesitation showed but it turned out Natsumi's curiosity won over her politeness. "Do you remember about what happened before we got here...? Any memory could be helpful... for our situation."

Suzuka widened her eyes as Natsumi spoke—that was right, she has absolutely no memory of how she came to this place. The reminder made her stomach churn in protest though. She didn't like how her head was empty of information—no, she didn't like it at all. "I... N-no, I can't really remember anything—I... I'm sorry I can't answer—"

"Ah—it is the same for me as well, so please do not worry much about it...!" Natsumi cut in with a louder voice than her usual; the forceful tone threw Suzuka off guard, though that was a good thing since the girl's pale complexion turned back to her fair one. "This is... quite worrying, however. We're both trapped somewhere we do not know... And we do not have... any recollection of previous event that could possibly lead to this situation..."

Suzuka nodded and started to look around and just at that moment, she realized that she had no recognition of where this could possibly be—nothing at all. A few other buildings (she thought there was also a playground and what looked like a graveyard from its tall, iron gate) stood tall on the ground around them, all ran down just like the office that the student came from. There were also several trees and bushes and some of the buildings are overgrown by plants—overall, the places seemed to hadn't been taken care of for years.

As Suzuka tried to observe more and looked carefully at each buildings, she came to the realization that all of them circled around something; the balance scale statue from earlier that stood tall in the center of everything, being located in a plaza that separated itself from other ground with its stone pavement. There were also several tall loudspeakers that were directed outside, most likely to make sure that whatever announcement that came from it would be able to be heard from anywhere.

She then looked back at Natsumi—only to notice that there were two people heading towards them, with one of them speaking to the other who seemed to be giggling at whatever the other person was talking about. A moment of blinking to make sure they were not just some hallucinations that happened to appear, and now they were close enough that their footsteps made Natsumi turn to look at them with a raised eyebrow, her lips slightly parted at the sight of two—no, three people (one was much shorter than everyone else and was walking behind the two that Suzuka didn't notice them) in an unusual sight.

The girl in front had voluminous, rose gold hair with silver roots styled in loose curls—and for some reason dragging a boy who was shorter than her by a long metal chain that connected to a thick white leather collar around his neck. The boy, who has his silver hair with black tips styled short with his bangs neatly held by multicolored hair clips, didn't seem to mind the treatment though and kept a goofy smile on his face as he lightly giggled. The silver—no, pale blonde girl with hair styled in a bun at the nape of her neck who was standing behind the first girl kept a worried look on her face; at what Suzuka didn't know as she wasn't even looking at anyone in particular.

"Oh—hey, Natsumi! Suzuka too! Seems like the ones in this weird place are everyone from our class, thank goodness. Right, Kara?" The first girl asked 'Kara' who stayed quiet and was seemingly use to it with her reaction, she turned to look at the boy while her hand fiddled with the hem of her oversized dark red wool sweater. "Right, Tsura?"

The boy jumped at first before he looked around and blinked when he saw the rose-gold-haired girl looking at him with a smile. "Uh—okay, right!" He replied with a big smile in return and pumped both of his hands up, showing a pair of handcuffs with a part of it around his left wrist and a thick cotton wristband that wrapped itself around his right wrist. "I love it when you pulled my chain, uh huh! Thank you!"

A few seconds went in silence before the girl who talked earlier burst out laughing and rubbed the head of the boy who ended up purring at the affection. Suzuka could only stare at this with her lips slightly parted, wanting to say so many things that she didn't even know where to start. A glance at Natsumi who was standing closer to the unknown trio proved that the nature photographer was in the same state as her, but the other three didn't seem to notice. The third girl didn't even bat an eye as she kept looking somewhere else. But wait, something was off, wasn't it—

"How—how did you know our name...?" Suzuka looked at Natsumi who was staring at the trio (or more specifically the girl who called their name), suspicion clear in her narrowed eyes. "I do not think I have ever met you... Have you, Suzuka?" The questioned girl looked away and mumbled a quiet no, and for some reason Natsumi now stood in front of Suzuka, shielding her from the trio who actually looked confused for once.

"Wait, what are you talking about, Natsumi! We're classmates, ain't we?" The girl laughed and patted Natsumi on the shoulder—or that was what she would be doing if the nature photographer didn't slap her hand away. That, with the silence and Natsumi's sharp stare spoke more than any words and the girl seemed to get flustered. "We're... We're classmates in Hope's Peak—all fifteen of us, been like that for a month, right? It's not like you to joke around like this, ya know..."

Natsumi didn't answer and just stared at the trio—Suzuka thought that the ginger girl actually looked pretty serious (and a little bit scary). The overall tense atmosphere made the student fidget. She didn't know what was going on and it made her stomach churn; knowledge meant everything to her and to find out that she had no recollection of coming to this place and now having classmates that she didn't know about—it made her feel sick, somehow.

"What's wrong? What's up? What's this? What's happening?" The boy asked rapidly before he started... sniffing at them, for some reason. The girl from earlier patted the boy and both Suzuka and Natsumi turned even more confused when the boy purred just like a cat.

"If you can't tell, Ohno-san, they're genuinely confused. Kimura-san isn't the type to joke around, as you said." The other girl finally spoke her mind—and straight to the point as well. Suzuka shrunk when the first girl's gaze turned to her, though Natsumi shuffled again so she covered the student completely, something that made her let out a sigh of relief as she looked away. "I don't think they're joking."

"Huh? You can't be serious—oh!" The one who the other girl called 'Ohno-san' perked up at something before she grabbed the only boy in the group by his shoulders and put him in front of her, though the boy's reaction was just to tilt his head. "You must remember Tsura though—I doubt anyone would ever forget him once they met him! Tsura, do something to make them remember, please?"

"Ah..." Suzuka blinked at Natsumi's lack of words and she peeked from behind the girl; 'Tsura' was holding one of the rose-gold-haired girl's hands and licking it with a happy expression—and the girl didn't seem to mind at all. "Um... If you are trying to do something, I have absolutely no clue what..." The nature photographer trailed, seemingly lost at words.

"Oh come on! Don't make me look like a weirdo who likes being licked by someone—" The girl cut her words as she seemed to realize that she herself was the one who made her sound like it. She pulled her hand away from the boy who looked slightly dejected by it but decided to play with his chain instead. "A-anyways! Do you seriously not recognize us...?"

"As far as I can remember, no." Suzuka would had said something about how that was a weak statement since Natsumi claimed that she couldn't remember about anything that happened before this, but before she could do that the nature photographer glanced back at her. "You as well right, Haruzome-san?" The girl stayed quiet for a few seconds before she nodded—not any of the people in front of them looked remotely familiar even though the student prided herself in at least remembering people's face, even ones she just saw passing. "I do recommend introducing yourself—you are not making it easy with how you claimed that we are classmates... despite the fact that we both do not recognize all of you, not even knowing your name."

The girl who was talking the most let out a nervous laugh and agreed to it. "Well, I guess that's true... Feels weird to introduce myself like we've just met despite the fact that we've been classmates for a month though—"

"Please just hurry up, Ohno-san. Or we're just going to keep be suspicious to Kimura-san and Haruzome-san. Also, I don't want to be here any longer..." The other girl commented without looking at them—while the words seemed rude, the girl seemed worried (Suzuka thought that maybe that was just her default face) and the one who got called 'Ohno-san' frowned slightly before she sighed and nodded in agreement.

"Alright, alright... Well, it's weird to introduce myself twice—"

"No need to repeat your point, Ohno-san."

"—but I guess it's necessary. Anyways! My name's Himiko—Ohno Himiko. Ring any bell?" Suzuka and Natsumi both said no as the girl laughed while scratching her head as a response. "Tough crowd, huh... But yeah, I'm not lying. Kara and Tsura can vouch for me, right guys?" The silence afterwards made Himiko look towards the two with her grey eyes, long eyelashes fluttered as she took in the silence that totally didn't support her. Freckles speckled across her reddened cheeks (probably because of embarrassment) and red dark lipstick covered her lips was noticed by Suzuka as she spoke. "G-guys, please..."

Suzuka took the silence (which was honestly made everything awkward) as a chance to observe Himiko. The oversized sweater that the girl was wearing reached almost down to her knees, covering any possible pants she could be wearing at the moment. Her thigh-heeled boots covered the rest of her lower half, continuing up to under her sweater. The student thought that she looked like a model—and that thought reminded her that if Himiko was really telling the truth, that they were all classmates then logically she would be an Ultimate as well. The girl didn't say anything about it though, but she did say it earlier that they were all Hope's Peak Academy classmates, so there was still a possibility of Suzuka's theory being right.

"I'm Yoshido Takara. I prefer going by "Kara" though, so if you could call me that I'd appreciate it." The other girl finally spoke again though she didn't even confirmed what Himiko was saying, making the trio looked even more suspicious. She seemed to realize this since she continued to speak even though earlier she seemed to be done talking. "And yes, I can vouch that Ohno-san isn't lying."

Kara was shorter than all of them—even the unknown boy who was surprisingly even shorter than Suzuka. Her large green eyes made a pretty addition to her pale complexion, which made her look cute and innocent overall. She looked to be like a porcelain doll, if it wasn't for what appeared to be dirt under her nails and that for some reason her fingertips were burnt.

Her clothes supported her cute look though, what with the pale green dress that reached her knees and dotted with yellow, pink, and blue flowers on the skirt. White, wool tights and black Mary Janes covered the rest of her legs. As she turned to look somewhere else, Suzuka noticed the sparkly, silver rose-shaped clip nestled on the top of her bun. A pair of light brown gardening gloves peeked out of the left pocket of her dress, looking old and well used. Suzuka assumed the girl was a gardener, or at least had a talent related to plants—then again, she wasn't so sure considering like Himiko, Kara also didn't say anything that pointed out her having any kind of talent beside the fact that she confirmed that she was also their classmate in Hope's Peak.

"Thank you!" Himiko cried out dramatically, seemingly in relief that someone finally vouched for her telling the truth. "Honestly though, Kara, you can just agree to me right away earlier! Natsumi's stare was really making me nervous—and uh, she's still staring..."

"What about your friend over there?" Natsumi asked as she nodded at the boy's direction who was being stared at by Suzuka next—he didn't seem to be paying attention at all since his eyes kept darting everywhere somewhat anxiously, and Himiko's hold on his shoulders seemed to be the only thing that was keeping him rooted in his place and not running away somewhere else.

The boy had a very pale blue—no, silver eyes that reminded Suzuka of dead fish. His olive complexion made a weird combination with the silver, though the slight blush on his cheeks didn't match very well either, like the light dust of freckles. He was wearing a plum short-sleeve shirt, tucked into black dress shorts secured by a black belt (various tools was hanging from a key-ring connected to the belt), all complemented with a pair of combat boots.

A further observation made Suzuka realize his accessories were much more peculiar; there was an initial "T.I." on the collar around his neck, along with what seemed to be an address—and strangely enough, an undone straight jacket wrapped itself around his waist and a mouth cage hung itself on a loop connected to his belt. The student had no idea at all of what the boy could be beside someone with a weird hobby.

"Ah—right! Tsura, can you introduce yourself, please?" Himiko asked the boy who perked up at hearing his name. He started opening his mouth to speak and Suzuka paid great attention to him since she was quite curious about the boy's weird overall mannerism—

"Pasta!" The student blinked at this—not only at the fact that she had absolutely no clue as to why the boy just shouted the name of an Italian cuisine excitedly, but also how she noticed that the boy had sigmatism or as some people commonly called it, a lisp.

Himiko blinked. "Um, Tsura... Introduction, please?"

"Oh! Okay, introduction—okay!" The boy gave both Suzuka and Natsumi a big, goofy smile and scratched his cheek; Suzuka could see a scar that seemed to be made by something that had slashed him. "Hello, hi, howdy! My name is Tsuramatsu, Tsu-ra-mat-su! Inu Tsuramatsu! Oh, and I'm good at escaping stuff—I love escaping super fast, I'll get rewarded! I'm the Ultimate Escape Artist, apparently so!"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **TSURAMATSU INU / / ULTIMATE ESCAPE ARTIST**

* * *

"Ah—" Suzuka perked up as she heard Tsuramatsu introducing his talent while for some reason Himiko and Kara both looked away—not that Suzuka noticed it since she was too focused with the only boy in the area currently. "You have a talent... So you're really in the same class—Hope's Peak class, like me. Ultimate... Escape Artist...!"

Tsuramatsu just giggled as a reply as Suzuka stared at him in silence—that didn't really confirm her thought, but then again he did introduced himself as an Ultimate so technically her theory that they were all Ultimates was supported by it. She needed more concrete evidence though; the student stepped away from behind Natsumi to look at the three properly now and she can feel Natsumi's somewhat worried stare at her, making her fidgeted a bit.

"Um..." Suzuka started speaking as she looked at Himiko and Kara. Though when the two looked at her with questioning glances, the girl couldn't help but to gulp and look away from their stare. She kept speaking however—her need to prove her theory was proving to be stronger than the thought that suddenly invaded her mind about how her little brother said that she needed to look at someone when speaking to them. "You two said—or Ohno-san said... She said we're all classmates, in Hope's Peak... So, um, logically speaking then—you two would have a talent for each one of you... I'm—I'm not wrong... am I...?"

The reaction to her question was for Himiko to laugh awkwardly while Kara just kept her sight away from her—this was honestly confusing to Suzuka. If they were indeed her classmates then shouldn't they had a talent? After all, they were all Hope's Peak students (at least that what they were saying)—or maybe they were reserve course students? But that didn't make any sense since there would be no way the school would combine the reserve course and the normal courses together. In case that they had talent though, why would they not mention about it? She thought that being an Ultimate was something to be proud of—her brother was certainly excited for her when she got the letter from Hope's Peak.

"Right! I forgot. The whole situation just surprised me, you know..." Himiko tried to justify her action but from how Natsumi raised an eyebrow it seemed to be not working. "I'm—well, I'm the Ultimate Ballerina. And Kara is—"

"I work with plants. Which is what I prefer to be doing now." Kara turned back and headed towards the balance scale statue—which honestly didn't make sense considering what she said. Suzuka perked up when she noticed that the girl made a turn to the back of the statue though; she hasn't seen that side, and it seemed that Natsumi thought the same since the nature photographer lifted her camera and gave Suzuka a small smile before she followed Kara.

"—Ultimate Botanist—h-hey, don't leave me behind!"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **HIMIKO OHNO / / ULTIMATE BALLERINA**

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **TAKARA YOSHIDO / / ULTIMATE BOTANIST**

* * *

Suzuka really didn't want to be left behind with Himiko and Tsuramatsu—they didn't do anything to her (yet) but she wasn't so sure she can handle both of them alone. And with that thought she followed Natsumi and Kara, ignoring how Himiko protested and seemed to be following them with the sound of footsteps behind her—only a pair of footsteps however, which made her turn back to look at Himiko who stopped.

"What're you suddenly stopping for, Suzuka?" Himiko raised her eyebrows but Suzuka just ignored her as she looked around at their surrounding. Nothing really changed, unless you count—

"Inu-san... He's gone." Suzuka observed how the ballerina jumped and immediately looked around after she said that.

"Oh, come on Tsura—you can't just disappear like that! Todd told me to keep an eye on you!" Himiko cried out before she looked back at Suzuka and pointed her finger at her, making the student flinched. "It's better to regroup with Kara and Natsumi, Suzuka! Strength in numbers and all that, yeah? If they're looking for me then tell them I'm chasing after Tsura, okay? Thanks!" The girl didn't even wait for her answer as she shook her head and sighed before running off somewhere, leaving Suzuka alone to blink.

The student wanted to explore wherever this place was (she worked better alone) but what Himiko said rang inside her head—it was true that it would be better if she was with someone considering she was somewhere she didn't know about at all. But then again, she didn't really know who these people were and whether they were telling the truth or not so she can't really say that she would be safe with more people.

(It's better to explore by myself... Yes, that's the best option.)

She nodded in her mind as she decided that it would be good to explore by herself after all, especially since she didn't really know anyone. With that thought she started to walk away from the plaza—or she would've had, if it wasn't for Natsumi who suddenly called her from behind.

"Haruzome-san...!" Suzuka flinched at the loud voice and Natsumi seemed to notice this. "Ah—my apologies, I did not mean to surprise you. But I found something behind here... I thought you might be interested to see it—it could possibly jog your memory...?"

Suzuka thought of declining the offer at first, but her curiosity won over her need of wanting to be alone and she nodded in confirmation before walking towards Natsumi as the nature photographer led her to where Kara was; the botanist crouched down while tending to some plants. Suzuka got closer to her and noticed that the plants were actually covering something that was small enough she didn't notice it at first. Only when the student was right in front of it did she actually realized what is was—

"A... headstone...?" Suzuka squinted her eyes to make sure that she wasn't wrong—the sight in front of her didn't change; an old headstone with carvings on it, hidden by vines and bushes. There were too much plants covering it to see the carvings, but it seemed to be disturbed fairly recently that she could easily read the carvings as long as she was close enough to it.

"Yes... I think you would be interested to see what it says. But it does prove that Ohno-san was not lying about all of us being in the same class..." Natsumi then noticed the absent of said person. "She is not with you, Haruzome-san?"

"Right—um, she said she'll chase Inu-san... He ran off somewhere... I think."

"He tends to do that." The sudden statement from Kara made Suzuka jump in surprise—she almost forgot that the botanist was right next to her; crouching down as she tended the plants with her gardening gloves on. "Inu-san, I mean."

Natsumi perked up. "Do you think Ohno-san would need any help...? I would like to ask her more… about the situation, particularly." Kara just shrugged without looking away from the plants as the nature photographer seemed to think of that response as a yes. "Alright then, I will go find her… and Inu-san as well. Take care, Haruzome-san... Yoshido-san."

Suzuka gave a small, somewhat awkward wave as Natsumi walked away from Kara and herself. The student took a deep breath before she looked back at the headstone before she approached it and crouched down; her face was right in front of the headstone as she tried to look the carvings on it. And the words that came into her sight was certainly something that spiked her interest.

* * *

Ultimate Gravedigger / Boseki, Masakazu

Ultimate Cross Country Runner / Fey, Todd

Ultimate Yamato-e Artist / Fujiwara no, Otome

Ultimate Student / Haruzome, Suzuka

Ultimate Ten-Dancer / Hijikata, Ichiro

Ultimate Escape Artist / Inu, Tsuramatsu

Ultimate Prosthetist / Ketsuraku, Yui

Ultimate Nature Photographer / Kimura, Natsumi

Ultimate Ghost Idol / Koizumi, Luka

Ultimate Psychic / Nakayama, Mizuki

Ultimate Ballerina / Ohno, Himiko

Ultimate ▇██▆█▆▇██ / Ono, Muga

Ultimate Construction Worker / Senoue, Sho

Ultimate Doctor / Takeba, Masaaki

Ultimate Therapist / Yakumo, Kaemi

Ultimate Botanist / Yoshido, Takara

* * *

(Ah... everyone is all—)

"—Ultimates..." Suzuka's amazement made her say her thought out loud and when she realized this she pursed her lips before looking down at the crouching down girl. Fortunately for her, Kara seemed to be too invested with the plants to even hear Suzuka—that, or the girl was just ignoring her (not that she minded).

The girl read each names and talents carefully (she noted that all of the ones who introduced themselves to her did told her the truth as their name and talent fit with the list—and that Muga's talent is covered by some kind of moss, at least she thought so; she can just ask him later in case they meet again), her fingers trailing down on the headstone as she spoke each words in her mind. So what Himiko said seemed to be true; they were all in the same Hope's Peak class and according to her, had been classmates for a month. But that was weird—if she remembered correctly, Himiko said that 'fifteen' of them were classmates in Hope's Peak.

(But there are... sixteen names in here...?)

The one who checked this headstone before her was probably Natsumi—that explained the reason why she didn't find it suspicious. Or at least if she found it was, she didn't say anything about it. Maybe that was why the ginger girl thought Suzuka would be interested in it? But then... one of the names here wasn't a part of their Hope's Peak class. Why then, would they be brought here? For that matter, why was the class brought here...?

A noise and a slight nudge to her leg brought Suzuka out from her mind; it came from Kara who was moving and accidentally nudged her. Like before though, the other girl seemed to be too invested with caring for the plants to actually notice anything else. Suzuka decided to observe the pale blonde girl and stared. She was handling the plants with care; it was obvious that the botanist cared about plants very much. And speaking of which, she was the one who also remembered that they were all classmates beside Himiko and Tsuramatsu (she can't really be sure about the later).

Suzuka's eyes widen at the implication as she realized something. "Yoshido-san..." The silence that came after was unbearable, even for the student. She bit her lower lip and fidgeted before trying to call the girl once again. "Um, Yoshido-san..." No answer. "Y-Yoshido-san—"

"If you want to ask something, then just ask," Kara stated without even looking up at her.

The student flinched at the bluntness, but the curiosity growing inside her made her shake her head and took a deep breath. "I was, um, wondering... about yo— _o-our_ class..." Suzuka waited for a response but she received none and took it as a sign to continue. "Does it have... fifteen—um, fifteen students, or sixteen...?"

More silence filled the air and she thought that the other girl wouldn't answer. But as she fidgeted and thought of finding Himiko or someone else that remembered everything, Kara suddenly stood up from her place and looked at Suzuka; the girl froze for a second with their eyes meeting before she quickly averted her gaze.

"What did you find?" Kara asked and it took a few moment for Suzuka to realize that the botanist was addressing her. She wriggled her fingers before pointing at the headstone.

"The headstone—it has... There are names there. Can you, um, tell me which one you don't—" Suzuka licked her dry lips and repeated her question. "Which one... you don't recognize...?"

Kara nodded her head though she didn't speak any words and just observed the headstone; both of her hands were on it, gently moving away the plants that hindered her sight. Suzuka fidgeted as she waited for the pale blond girl—it wasn't that long of a wait as Kara pointed a name just a few seconds after she glimpsed through the list of names.

"I don't recognize this name." Suzuka took a quick glance of the name that Kara pointed out before she widened her eyes. The botanist didn't seem to care much—she simply gave the student a sideways glance before she crouched back down and went back to tending the plant. But that shouldn't be—the name that Kara pointed out, it was—

* * *

Ultimate ▇██▆█▆▇██ / Ono, Muga

* * *

—Muga Ono. The first person that she found here—the one who had difficulty opening his own coffin and had to had help from her, the person who didn't chase after Suzuka when she ran away from him. She touched the name and her lips quirked down when she remembered about the moss that covered the talent. Her fingers started scratching the moss in hope that it would reveal the mysterious boy's talent—though her hope was in vain as the moss refused to disappear even as some stayed under her nails.

Suzuka parted her lips slightly as she stared at the carvings. It was weird that only Muga's talent was covered by the moss, unless it was just coincidental and the boy was just unlucky. She tucked her curiosity in her mind and thought of the current situation at hand instead.

Sixteen students (not determined yet, though the amount of the coffins add up) trapped in an unknown place and no one had told them anything, at least not yet. That brought up a few good questions in her mind; who put the name list here and why? For what purpose were they all brought here? And for that matter, why did some of them remembered things some didn't?

(I want to know... I need to know.)

With that in mind, the girl stepped away from the headstone and looked back at Kara. She thought of saying something to the pale blonde girl but decided against it as the botanist seemed to busy in her work—and the student didn't really want to deal with strangers (classmates, they were her classmates) by herself. The girl took a deep breath and licked her dry lips before she finally turned away to face some buildings she haven't seen yet.

"Time to explore..." Suzuka mumbled quietly under her breath, and started walking towards one of the buildings.

(And find some answers... for my questions...)

* * *

 **More A/N:** So yeah! This chapter was brought to you by, once again, the amazing **PainX65** who helped me checking the chapter, the song Hitorinbo Envy that I played non-stop every time I write (check out the cover by 96neko, she's amazing), and of course, you guys who's making sure that I continue writing with all of your support! Thanks a lot for the reviews, I really appreciate it guys :)). And with that said, time to answer them!

* * *

 **Some Random Pow:** GRAMPS! Yes, the most interesting character would be the eggplant and Franklin. Fuck the others (no I'm just kidding guys don't leave me I love you all). Thanks for the review!

 **DancingCactuar:** Gee, thanks Uncle. No seriously, thanks for your submission! And yes, there will be a lot of vegetables (not).

 **gold. spenser:** Thanks for the review! Guess you'll see whether they get accepted in this chapter!

 **Scissor-Snipper:** Thanks for the criticism! I guess I put way too many commas then I thought. I tend to put comma to let people know how I read the story, haha. Thanks for reminding me though! I tried to put less commas here, hopefully it shows. Thanks for the kind words! And yes, I tried to do some good ol' research and try to find some kanji that can give everyone a clue to the characters I've received so far. And you'll see their talents here!

 **PainX65:** Hey again Gramps. The question shall be answered in this chapter! Maybe! And uh huh, I get you *fingerguns*. Thanks as always for the helping hand!

 **ThePLOThand:** Um, yes. Eggplant. I swear this is a serious story, cross my fingers. Please don't leave *bows down*

 **TheRoseShadow21:** Thanks for the kind words! I tried to make it ominous so glad it shows, haha. Maybe it is related, maybe it's not. We'll see! Everything shall be answered in time. And yes, apparently eggplant is a gender *glances at a certain someone*. You know who you are, eggplant submitter :T Yes, we shall be sucky title comrade! Assemble!

 **Ziggymia123:** Haha, thanks for the kind words! I'm glad to hear that since I did in fact put that symbol so people can try to take a guess about the characters' talent :D Suzuka is gonna suffer like how everyone is going to. Poor everyone, they all need the protect.

 **Crimson Spider Lily:** *looks at the splinter that hasn't been removed* Uuhh, in the next chapter, promise! Thanks for your kind words, man y'all are just so nice and this kind of stuff really made me feel motivated to write. But of course, the criticism is appreciated too! I tried to not do what you told me in this chapter, hopefully I did well and didn't make other mistakes instead... The slow pace is mostly because nothing happened so far, and I think I make this chapter average with the pace? I got inspiration mostly from the folklore! Also from Touhou Project, if anyone's know anything about it. I don't remember much about the anime, though I did watched several episodes of it. Of course, I'm trying to write my own twists to this so hopefully you'll enjoy it! We'll see, we'll see. More stuff to theorize about as the story progress!

 **SanityRequiem:** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

 **Lupus Overkill:** Thanks for all of your reviews, Lupus! Really appreciate that you took the time to review all the chapters :D And yep, fixed that mistake about the coffins. I don't think I would've even noticed if you didn't point it out so thanks! And yes, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. As I keep saying a lot that you guys prolly bored of it, we'll see! You'll get to see some of the characters here, hopefully they're diverse enough.

 **Swordsman795:** Thanks for the review! Yep, I'm glad you think of Suzuka as someone interesting Sword! I'm trying my best to make a protagonist unlike the usual ones. You'll see more here, new chapter whoohoo!

 **Shyjoker:** Aww, thanks Jokes. That's surprisingly sweet of you. Um, don't shoot me please, thank you.

* * *

And that's all for the reviews, folks! Again, thanks so much for it! Reviews really make me motivated, and knowing what people think of my chapter gets me thinking about what to improve and all that jazz. Hopefully I'll be able to pump out the next chapter faster than this. For now, thanks you guys, for reading this! I'm happy that my story is good enough for people to have interest to read it, haha.

Also congratulation for the people who got their character chosen! It was a hard decision, trust me, and even now I feel bad for rejecting some of the great characters I received. But well, you win some you lose some, I suppose. Anyways, I'll see you on the next chapter (which will hopefully come out soon). Bye bye *waves hand*


	5. Prologue 0-3

**A/N:** Hello hello, it's me again! A quick update about life; it sucks and I'm currently struggling between writing and doing assignment for my university orientation stuff... no, I lied I actually haven't done a thing with the later which I should actually be doing. But anyways, here's the next chapter for you guys—hopefully I did well or even better (nah) than the previous chapter. No more talking from me at least for now, let's just go on with the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

 **PROLOGUE - A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING [PART #3]**

* * *

(First objective is… to explore. A library would be a nice find….)

With an objective decided, Suzuka nodded determinedly to herself; this time she wouldn't disturb anyone if she explored by herself since she was alone now, and people wouldn't disturb her either (at least that was her wish). Her lips quirked upwards at the thought and she started to look around from where she was standing near the statue.

The whole place looked spring-like despite the gloomy, abandoned atmosphere, with its almost-in-full-bloom sakura trees standing tall in between each buildings, while obscuring the sight of the surrounding areas. Behind all the buildings were some shrubs with deep-pink-colored flowers and some tall trees that Suzuka didn't recognize. The student thought of asking Kara about the plants since there could be a chance that the botanist could figure out what they were based on what was growing in this area, though a quick glance at Kara revealed that the girl was still focusing on the plants, alone, by herself.

The girl then perked up at the reminder of the moss under her nails. She tried her best to remove it with her other nails but it didn't really work due to her nails being cut short. Biting her lower lip, the student slipped another reminder in her mind to find something small and flat so she could remove the dirt under her nails. She licked her lips before putting her hands down and started looking around—eventually deciding to come to the first place she saw since it lead to a lot of places.

She walked for a bit until she could finally see a wooden plank with the word "Playground" written on it, resting on a low stone wall that only reached up to her knees. The wall seemed to surround the whole playground; the girl perked up when she noticed that the area was pretty deep in the back, which meant that they could possibly see what was behind the other buildings.

Suzuka entered the playground and her eyes immediately focused on the combination playground structure on the right side of the playground; it had a set of stairs leading to a playhouse with a slide leading to behind it and a swing attached to its left side. Suzuka came closer and looked at it—it seemed like it was all made of wood, though there was several spots that had some darker color on them, which had probably darkened as the structure had aged.

A sandbox was right in front of it—and was what Suzuka was currently standing on at the moment. She absentmindedly moved her foot left and right, leaving a mark on the sand; it was real, the girl could at least confirm that. Or if it was artificial then the person who made it went through a very complicated procedure to make it extremely similar to real sand. She didn't think that it really mattered however.

The sound of something rustling jolted the girl out from her thoughts as she moved from her previous position and looked behind the playground structure. The low stone wall allowed to clearly see the surrounding scenery—some green trees standing tall contrasted with the sakura trees in between the buildings, and the same shrubs from earlier grew near the low wall covered by some vines.

Suzuka's eyes darted around as she tried to find the source of the previous noise, but it seemed like there was nothing beside plants around the area. Something did caught her attention however; three spring rockers swaying left to right on her left, in the shape of... a monkey? All three of them were indeed monkeys, though each had a different pose; one was covering its eyes, one its ears, and the other one its lower face—specifically, its mouth.

"Sanbiki no Saru…?" The student asked herself, unknowingly speaking out loud. Sanbiki no Saru, or as some might say, "Sanzaru", were three monkeys that symbolize the phrase "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", which she was sure every person had at least heard about once in their life.

The meaning of the three monkeys varied from person to person, culture to culture, one teaching to another. Some said it was that of pretending to be ignorant of evil, while others claimed it was a saying that told us not to do anything 'evil'—though considering that this was a playground where kids would usually play, she could only assume that it had the latter meaning. No planner would want children to grow up being someone who feigns ignorance from evil, surely.

Suzuka turned from the spring rockers but immediately froze when she saw that someone was actually standing right in front her: a girl with pale pink hair, some of it covering her left eye while the rest draped over her shoulder in a neat loose braid, reaching just above her waist.

The student hadn't notice any presence at all, which was unusual considering her preference to be alone had earned her the skill to at least sense people's presence around her. The girl in front of her stayed quiet—the only thing that made Suzuka sure that she wasn't a ghost (which didn't exist in the first place, but still) was the fact that she bowed down in greeting and proceeded to fidget in her place while two pale hands gripped the sling of a brown messenger bag tightly.

"Um—excuse me..." The girl still didn't look at her; the student would call her by her name but the problem was that she didn't know it. And from the way she fidgeted, Suzuka wasn't so sure that she would appreciate being touched by stranger (unless she too, like Himiko and others, remembered things) because she herself certainly wouldn't. Therefore, the student decided that she would simply observe the girl instead.

She wore a thick grey turtleneck sweater that hid her figure well, with the addition of loosely fitting black jeans and a pair of heeled grey ankle boots. A pair of silver thin rimmed glasses hid the shimmer of her golden eyes. Suzuka thought that the girl looked somewhat similar to Natsumi with the braid and glasses, though her height was similar to her own.

Suzuka was about to call to the girl louder so she would finally realize that yes, she was the one the student wanted to talk to—or, well, that was what she about to do if not for the sudden loud voice coming from behind the playground that made both her and the other girl jump in surprise, although the student was more vocal with it; her face turning warmer as she looked away when realizing this.

"Wha—oh, it's just you Haruzome… I didn't know you were waiting here with Koizumi!" A boy with short, almost shaved hair in a brown color that reminded her of the earth after rain (or mud, if she wanted to be blunt), laughed boisterously. Suzuka thought that she should probably tell them soon that she had absolutely no clue about their identity since it seemed like they were thinking she remembered things she didn't. "You're good, Koizumi?"

"A-ah—" The mentioned girl fumbled with the sling of her bag for a bit at first, seemingly flustered at being suddenly addressed by the boy. She took a deep breath and exhaled before she nodded, not making eye contact with anyone as she looked away and stared at one of the trees surrounding them instead. "I-I'm alright… S-Sorry for making y-you worried, S-Senoue-kun..."

"Don't worry 'bout it, yeah? Though that reminds me, I saw Ohno back there—" 'Senoue-kun' (as the other girl called him) jabbed his thumb toward the area behind the playground that was overgrown with plants, grinning with what seemed to be amusement in his muddy brown eyes. "Seems like Todd gave her the Inu-duty this time!"

"Ohno-san… Inu-duty…?" Suzuka perked up at hearing the familiar name (the later did brought some questions), though then her nose scrunched up together while her eyebrows furrowed as she realized something. "I thought… Kimura-san—she didn't go after Ohno-san to help find Inu-san…? But then..."

The student was sure of her memory; Natsumi asked Kara if Himiko would need any help and then she went after both the ballerina and the escape artist. But maybe she was just overthinking this—the nature photographer could simply be splitting up with Himiko to cover more area so they could find Tsuramatsu more easily. Suzuka nodded to herself as she agreed with herself.

The boy blinked and shook his head, laughing again; in response also making Suzuka blink as she got out from the maze that is her own mind. The student found it unsettling for someone to keep laughing as she thought that there was nothing funny (though there were quite the several instances where that happened before; a classmate once told her that there was nothing funny but at home she later found out that someone had sticked a piece of paper with some illogical writings on her back).

Before she could speak up and ask about it though, the unknown boy slapped her back, making her both almost fall from its strength (she kept a hand on the low wall although she could feel her body going lower and lower from the slap) and freeze from the physical touch. Her stomach churned in discomfort as the boy kept on slapping her back while laughing, and again before she could say anything, he started to speak —something she couldn't really do anything about (but at least he had stopped slapping her back) considering this boy's voice was louder than hers. As it happened, the pale-pink-haired girl in front of her, who looked like she wanted to do something, stayed still and looked away when their eyes met.

"You're the usual Haruzome after all! Ohno was just being weird 'cause of Inu or something—I know I'm right, yeah!" The unknown boy spoke with much confidence in his voice while he grinned; it made Suzuka uncomfortable not knowing what he was talking about. "Memory loss and stuff? She ain't making any sense!"

"Ah—" Suzuka widened her eyes at hearing this; it seemed like Himiko told the people she met about the whole memory loss situation that some of the students had. As she observed though, it seemed like the pair of a boy and a girl surrounding her didn't get their memory… erased? Thrown away? Locked inside their head? Suzuka didn't know, but she surely envied them—knowledge was a strong suite of hers and it somewhat sickened her that she still hadn't any clue about her memories of a whole month missing from her head.

The student shook her head and cleared her throat, gaining the attention of the two other people in the playground as she started speaking. "Um, you're—you're not… right." She licked her dry lips and clenched both of her fists. "You're wrong."

"Huh?"

"I—you said Ohno-san was just 'being weird'... That's wrong. I..." The girl looked away when she heard footsteps; she could sense the boy in front of her now, staring down at her because of his large build. "I-I… don't know who you two are…"

The silence Suzuka expected didn't come and instead, she jumped in surprise and clutched the collar of her white shirt when the boy with muddy brown hair just laughed.

"I see! Well, I expected that—I mean, why'd Ohno lie about something so ridiculous! It was just a trick!" He nodded to himself before grinning at Suzuka. "I was just testing you, y'see!"

"I-it was—it's a t-test…" Her eyes darted around in nervousness and locked eyes with the other girl who had been silent for a while now, though from what she had seen the girl seemed to prefer not talking. The student gulped and looked back at the boy in front of her, avoiding his eyes. "But you looked… so confident…"

The boy went silent for a moment (which left Suzuka with a bit of a suspicious impression—it made her thought that it wasn't a 'test' after all) and then rubbed the back of his neck. "W-well! That was good acting, right? I totally fooled you!"

Suzuka's lips parted slightly as she tried to understand what he was talking about—she really didn't like the feeling of not knowing anything. After a few seconds passed and her mind blanked, she decided to just ask the person herself. "You—um, you fooled me…?"

"Yeah!" The boy nodded his head and gestured at her, making her tilted her head in confusion. He rubbed his chin in a thinking pose and looked away; the student noticed that there were minor scrapes and bruises on his arms. "I totally knew you were missing your memories and stuff! Even way before Ohno said it to me!"

Without realizing what she was doing, Suzuka moved forward closer to the boy (whose name she still didn't know even after talking this much) and looked at him right in the eye. "My memories—that's… You know about it? Why did they disappear? Who took them? Why would they—"

"Uh—" The unknown boy looked panicked at the sudden barrage of questions—of course the girl didn't notice at all as the feeling in her chest lifted up a bit when she thought that she could get answers so soon. "H-hey—first of all, why don't Koizumi and I introduce ourselves again? That's a good idea, right Koizumi?!"

'Koizumi' jumped in surprise before she looked down at the sudden attention both the boy and Suzuka gave her; she started to fidget even more and her eyes darted everywhere in nervousness. There was a few seconds of silence until her eyes widened and she looked at the boy. "A-ah—y-you're talking to me, S-Senoue-kun…?"

A nod of confirmation made the girl start to mumble. Suzuka looked back between the boy and the girl before she finally realized her proximity with the first and quickly backed away to keep some distance between them, something the boy thankfully didn't seem to notice. She stared at the unknown girl and waited—and waited, but the girl seemed to still be mumbling to herself.

"I'll go first then!" The boy cut in; to not embarrass the girl who seemed very flustered and kept mumbling something under her breath, or maybe because he did wanted to introduce himself first to her, Suzuka didn't know. "Still can't believe you forgot my name though… But anyways, listen up 'cause I'm only saying this once! I'm Senoue Sho, the Ultimate Construction Worker! Don't forget 'bout it again, you got that?!"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **SHO SENOUE / / ULTIMATE CONSTRUCTION WORKER**

* * *

Suzuka nodded before she looked at the other girl who hadn't introduced herself just yet, waiting. Sho seemed to realize this and he turned his head to look at the pale-pink-haired girl. "Koizumi, you wanna introduce yourself to Haruzome now?"

The mentioned girl snapped her head up back from her mumbling and nodded, though still not looking at either one of them. "M-my name… it's Koizumi Luka. I-I'm the U-Ultimate… Ghost Idol."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **LUKA KOIZUMI / / ULTIMATE GHOST IDOL**

* * *

Suzuka furrowed her eyebrows as the gears in her mind started whirling. She had never heard of the term anywhere before—not the idol part, she had heard her little brother mention it a couple of times- but she was sure she hadn't heard anything about ghost idols… maybe it was something like a ghost writer who wrote for authors but didn't get acknowledged. The student certainly had never heard about the girl before, though she didn't follow things like entertainment so she wouldn't really know. "Um… can you—maybe, tell me more about it, Koizumi-san…? I've never heard of a ghost idol…"

"A-ah—me…?" The student nodded as she tried to look at the girl who was hidden from her sight by Sho's big body (in truth she preferred to see the girl fidgeting rather than the boy and his intimidating height). The construction worker was frowning and crossed his arms on his chest for some reason she didn't know. "U-um… I-I don't think I'm allowed to explain it… I-I'm really sorry…"

Suzuka blinked and unconsciously let out a quiet _ah_. She really didn't get it at all—first Muga's unknown talent and this 'ghost idol' business that the Ultimate Ghost Idol herself couldn't explain… maybe her thoughts about it being similar to a ghost writer were true and Luka couldn't say it because it would destroy someone else's reputation. The student was still curious about it though, there was no changing that.

Sho suddenly let out another laugh (Suzuka started to think that it was a trademark of his) that made both girls near him jump. "Man, you two're so awkward—this is why you guys need me to liven up the mood!" He grinned and scratched his cheek before he looked at the black watch on his left wrist. The boy then sighed and jabbed his thumb toward the plant-infested area behind the playground. "As much as I wanna do that though, I think I'm gonna try to investigate the place some more like the duo class reps asked me. If I find something useful then they might owe me a debt huh? Whaddya think?"

The words clicked in the student's head and she perked up. "Oh—you were investigating in the.. um, forest…?" Her eyes wandered to the clothing the construction worker was wearing and she spoke without thinking. "Is that—is it the reason for your clothes being dirty then…?"

The mentioned boy looked down at his clothing; an unzipped dark purple hoodie covering most of an old white T-shirt, which had a picture of what seemed to be a Western-style dragon in the same color as his hoodie. However the things that attracted Suzuka's attention was his lower half clothing, with the pair of beat-up, tan shorts and light brown socks (that in her opinion looked like it was covered with dirt or something), along with a pair of old-looking brown sneakers with the right shoe laces not done properly—it seemed like they were cut off or something.

"Wha—" Sho frowned and looked back at Suzuka who blinked and backed away at the sudden bad feeling she was having. She tried to look at the ghost idol who was still behind the boy but he moved forward pretty quickly, helped by his height, causing her to back away while the construction worker was looming over her. "Is that an insult, huh?! You're saying I can't afford some fancy clothing like what you're wearing right now?!"

Suzuka flinched at the shouting but then furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head—she would back away more but that was impossible now that her legs were against the stone wall of the playground. "No—I'm not… That's not what I was saying at all…"

"Well it sounds like you're looking down on me! What—is it because you're from a rich family, Haruzome?! You think you're better than me?!" Sho growled at Suzuka; she looked away in response and put both of her hands on the low stone wall for support. The lack of answer from the student seemed to anger the construction worker even more, making him shout louder. "ANSWER ME!"

"I-I'm not…!" Suzuka shook her head again and raised her voice without thinking. She bit her lower lip and tried to control her erratic breathing as she realized how close the boy was to her. "I-I didn't—I'm… Y-you're too close, S-Senoue-san—"

As the student was panicking, she heard some rustling from the bushes behind the playground—it seemed like Sho heard it too since he stood back up and turned his back to her as he looked at Luka. "Koizumi, you heard that?!"

Luka jumped and froze for a moment but then nodded nervously. "I-I… y-yes…"

The construction worker frowned and scratched the back of his neck; Suzuka let out a gasp as she heaved her breathing, her eyes darting between Sho who was looking toward the area behind the playground and Luka who immediately looked away once the student tried to look at her. The muddy-brown-haired boy huffed and then looked at Suzuka before pointing his finger at the girl who froze.

"Look—don't say stuff like that again, got that? I'll forgive you this time but I won't hold back if you mock me again." Suzuka wanted to say that she wasn't trying to mock him (and she didn't really understand why he got so offended) but the sharp stare made her gulp and nod in defeat—she preferred not to get cornered again. "Koizumi, I'm gonna check what the sound was about… Prolly Inu or something."

Suzuka backed away slowly as she clutched her shirt and saw Luka nodding her head to respond to Sho and staying quiet after that. The construction worker just jumped over the low stone wall easily and almost immediately disappeared between the tall trees; the student took the chance and ran out from the playground. It might had been rude, but at the time, Suzuka didn't really care if she left the ghost idol (who she didn't look at as she ran) behind—she just wanted to avoid Sho in case he returned again.

The girl felt her lungs burning again when she reached the front of the playground. Her eyes darted left and right with caution—there wasn't anyone in her sight but then again, earlier Luka suddenly showed up without her noticing anything. Suzuka thought she heard a voice calling for her (it sounded a bit familiar for some reason) but she shook her head and took a deep breath before she hugged her sweater closer to her body and walked quickly towards another random building—she didn't want to take more risk only to find out that it was someone who was going to yell at her for something she didn't understand.

Just like the 'office' that she saw earlier, the unknown building where she ended up had a big wooden plank working as a sign on its upper side with the word "Daycare" written in hiragana on it. The wooden structure of the overall building seem to be old, with vines and moss taking over several spots of the walls while some windows were broken, though there wasn't any glass shards to be seen on the ground under them. Fences surrounded the building with some bushes on the front yard of the daycare—despite it being a place to take care of children, its apparent long-lasting abandonment made it looked like a horror-themed building more than anything.

The door creaked as the student entered the building. It seemed like there was someone inside as she immediately felt a stare drilling holes into her figure. Suzuka bit her lower lip and looked away to a row of shoe racks; some pair of shoes were in place inside of it while several others were just scattered on the nearby ground. She heard footsteps coming close toward her and she gulped before turning her head to her right; a skinny boy with fluffy-looking mint green hair was standing in the middle of the room between two low square tables.

The boy stayed silent for a few moment, staring at Suzuka as the girl fidgeted and averted her eyes to the colorful yet messy drawings plastered on the wal, squinting as the light kept on flickering. She did say that she was going to find some answers but she honestly preferred to find them in books instead of by talking to strangers (forgotten classmates, they were her forgotten classmates). And she really, really didn't want something similar that happened with a certain construction worker to happen again.

"Who are you?" The boy finally asked after he stopped staring down at her and started walking toward her. She pursed her lips when she noticed that he didn't seem to recognize her; seemed like he also lost his memory. Her silence when thinking seemed to make him just a bit annoyed as he stopped near her. "I think it's a good thing to look at someone when they're talking to you, don't you think so too?"

"Um—yes, that's common manners. I'm sorry..." Suzuka mumbled before she looked at the boy (she needed to adjust her gaze as it turned out he was a lot taller than her), curling her toes. He had his hair cut short at its lower half with a single stub at the top of his head; his bangs were down to his bright green eyes, which had shadows underneath them.

"You apologized. It's fine." His tone was quiet but it seemed softer than before for some reason. Suzuka thought that maybe she looked so pitiful that the stranger took pity on her, but nothing could be proven without asking him directly and she didn't want to do that. "I'm… Takeba Masaaki, the Ultimate Doctor. It's a pleasure to meet you."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **MASAAKI TAKEBA / / ULTIMATE DOCTOR**

* * *

Suzuka nodded her head and gulped as she maintained her gaze on his taller frame. She repeated her introduction in the exact same way as she did before, making Masaaki's eyes widen a bit in response.

"So you're from Hope's Peak too?" The student mumbled a yes and Masaaki adjusted his scarf and nodded; the red scarf wrapped itself around the boy's neck, seeming to be hanging down his back, and had a yellow center and and a green diamond pattern all over it. "I see."

The girl parted her lips as she thought there was a chance for her to excuse herself and explore again—this time to find somewhere without people. Though before she could gather her thoughts and find out what to say to not seem rude, the doctor gently cradled her right hand in both of his. She flinched and this seemed to make the doctor realize his mistake and release the girl's hand.

Suzuka slowly looked up at Masaaki (all while putting her right hand onto her chest with the other hand covering it) only to blink in confusion. The corner of his lips turned downwards, his eyebrows furrowed at the same time with the narrowing of his eyes; it's the same expression Natsumi was wearing when—

(Ah...)

Looking down as she removed her left hand from covering the other hand, she could see the reddening part on her finger. A small part of the splinter she got from the coffin protruded out from under her skin and she pursed her lips before looking away from the sight, back to the other person in the room.

Masaaki looked a bit confused but then shook his head lightly to clear it out of whatever he was thinking about. "Are you okay, Haruzome? Does it hurt?" He gestured to her right hand to be clearer with his question.

Suzuka blinked. "Um—yes, it's okay…?" She looked back at the splinter and showed her palm to Masaaki, though still keeping her distance. "It's throbbing… but otherwise—um, it doesn't hurt that much…"

"How long was it since you got that splinter?" The student watched the boy as he walked away from her and deeper into the daycare, seemingly looking for something. She was a bit surprised by the question, which reminded her of a check-up, but she supposed Masaaki was a doctor after all. "Haruzome?"

"Ah… I'm sorry. The question—that is… the splinter, right…?" Masaaki answered her with a nod and she continued talking. "Um, it was about thirty minutes ago, I think?" Masaaki hummed something under his breath before he turned back to look at something inside a storage closet in the corner; Suzuka took this chance to observe him more.

The boy was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt, covered with a combination of a yellow and green sweater vest and a puffy black hoodless coat; vertical zipped pockets were positioned near his ribs and there were also buttoned pocket on each sides of the coat. A belt held up his dark brown pair of khakis, with white lace-up shoes complementing the whole look. He didn't particularly looked like a doctor, but she supposed that was fair since they weren't really at their 'job', per say.

A sudden _bam_ threw Suzuka off guard; Masaaki lifted his hand to show what he found as he dusted the storage closet door that he had closed earlier. The student parted her lips slightly as she stared at the duct tape and scissors in Masaaki's hand with a blank look; she knew that he didn't mean anything bad and just wanted to help (at least she tried to think so) but it just made all of the bells in her mind ring—was he planning to silence her? The only thing she could think of was that he was up to no good and that she just wanted to be away right this instant.

Suzuka stepped back, still keeping her eyes on the doctor as he turned around from the storage closet and walked back to her with what he needed in his hands. It was most likely thanks to his profession as a doctor, but thankfully for the student he noticed her body language; cautious and vigilant. Masaaki stopped immediately and stayed in his place, slowly lifting both of his hands in a surrendering position with an expression softer than before.

"I am going to take the splinter out Haruzome, that's all. We don't want to risk any infection, not with our lack of knowledge regarding where we are now." The student relaxed her stiff posture just a little after hearing his reasoning but remained cautious. Masaaki took a small step forward, which was matched by a step back from Suzuka. He looked troubled at this and pursed his lips, thinking for a few moments in silence before he opened his mouth again. "I'm going to put these things on the floor… You need to put the duct tape so it'll cover your splinter, and leave it for thirty minutes so the splinter will stick onto it. That will have to do since I don't have my equipment with me."

The doctor kept his words as Suzuka stared at his figure crouching down slowly as to not surprise the student. He put the duct tape and scissors on the ground before he stood up again. The girl licked her lips and clutched onto her collar, looking hesitant—that was until she flinched when the finger embedded with splinter brushed against the soft argyle-pattern fabric of her v-neck sweater.

With a quick movement the girl took a big step forward and leaned down before she cut a small part of the duct tape with the scissors, leaving the things (she kept the small, cut piece of duct tape of course) down on the ground as she went back to her original spot. Suzuka looked up to see Masaaki who nodded upon noticing her stare and with the doubt hidden deep in her mind to reassure herself, she put the duct tape on her finger.

Silence was what roamed in the building afterwards; Masaaki seemed to be satisfied that the splinter problem would be solved soon thus staying quiet, while Suzuka just didn't have anything to say—the student pursed her lips as she remembered something that her brother kept reminding her about.

( _"When someone helps you, say thank you to them! I'm sure they'll appreciate it!"_ )

"Um, Takeba-san…" Suzuka trailed as she waited for any type of response—Masaaki looked back and nodded at her, silently asking the student to continue. She start fidgeting because of the attention but nevertheless continued to speak. "I… I just want to say—"

Before Suzuka could finish the sentence coming out from her lips, a laugh resounded across the room. She looked back toward the source of the voice, at the daycare entrance, where there used to be nothing but an unsettling amount of dirty-looking shoes and shoes lockers (at which the person scrunched their narrow, slightly pointed nose at and took a step away from), where a boy with fawn brown hair styled into a quiff stood still as he observed his surroundings.

"And you are…?" Masaaki voiced exactly word for word the thoughts residing in Suzuka's mind. Different from the student's flustered self, due to being inside alone with two other boys however, Suzuka saw the mint-haired doctor narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the new person. The unknown boy's thin, soft lips curved into a grin all while he took his time to walk towards the duo.

"Two people in a dim-lighted, abandoned building is just scandalous! Anyone mind me joining in?" He asked back while brushing his sleek and shiny hair (most likely from using hair products) back, completely ignoring Masaaki's question. Suzuka backed away slowly as she kept her eyes on the tanned boy with lean muscles, moving just a bit closer to the doctor who kept his suspicion clear on his face; the response they got was a chuckle. "My, no one can't take a joke?"

"Your name, please." The doctor repeated again though firmer and with a slightly colder tone this time; Suzuka flinched even though the words weren't directed at her. "And don't ignore me."

The only response Masaaki got was a delicately raised eyebrow and chin as if the boy didn't believe what had just being spoken. The student noticed that he was shorter than the doctor, with his small ears pierced by a small gold stud in each of them and his neck surrounded with a gold chain necklace. He seemed to like gold (Suzuka couldn't figure out whether it was real or not though) very much—or more exactly anything that showed his apparent wealth, considering how many various rings decorated with gemstones were adorning his fingers.

Suzuka stared at the stranger with pursed lips as she tried to think about what she should do next; while there was 'strength in numbers' as Himiko had said, she thought that being in the same building with two boys who seemed to have a good amount of tension between them couldn't really count as 'strength'. It would be better if she left the building since Masaaki already seemed satisfied with their conversation and she didn't really want to deal with more people—she was here because she thought she could be alone after all.

A chuckle (for what reason she didn't know) brought the student up to the surface of her mind, as she immediately looked away when her orange eyes accidentally met with the black—no, dark chocolate eyes that the unknown boy had. He wiggled his eyebrows which in return made Suzuka gulp and also increased her need to get away from there as soon as possible.

Not seeing the amused response he expected, the boy just sighed and brushed his hair back again as he slowly walked towards the other two. "Everybody knows the name of Hijikata Ichiro, the god of all that is dancing… And of course, the Ultimate Ten Dancer." He put his hand on his hip and smirk at Masaaki. "Of course seeing as you seem to not know who I am, I could offer you some extra service to get to know me better… Preferably in bed, how does that sound?"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **ICHIRO HIJIKATA / / ULTIMATE TEN DANCER**

* * *

Masaaki's nose scrunched up right away as the doctor narrowed his eyes even more at Ichiro. The student and him did ended up introducing themselves (albeit a bit reluctantly) afterwards before the latter went back to glaring at the ten dancer for his previous 'question'. Then, the ten dancer laughed before waving his hand in a dismissing manner. "You can undress me with your eyes later, my dear. Your stare is making me nervous. And look, we have a minor here!"

Suzuka looked away when Ichiro nodded his head at her direction and winked. She honestly didn't know where that logic came from. Just because she was shorter than the two didn't mean she was younger. And besides, they were all, in fact, minors. So she spoke up about it. "I-I'm a minor, yes… But that—that applies to you too, Hijikata-san." She looked at Ichiro (no eye contact, of course) and tilted her head, eyebrows furrowing. "Unless you're actually twenty years old, but—um, did you not manage to graduate for two years straight…?"

Silence was what came after Suzuka's question, making the girl fidget and look away, not knowing what to say. Both of the boys were staring at her and, in synch unlike before, they blinked with slightly parted lips, eyes widening while both silent. And then—

"Oh, darling…" Ichiro wiped the non-existent tears from his eyes after he was done laughing. Suzuka looked at him; the corner of his lips was up forming a smile, but she felt that something was wrong with it. "You're not very smart, are you?"

"That was… rude. Asking a question like that could offend someone, Haruzome." The response Masaaki got was a smirk and a blink (you can easily guess which was whose), though, as if sensing the smirk from Ichiro, the mint-haired boy stared down at the ten dancer. "That applies to you too, so stop smirking."

"My, but this is basically my identity, you know?" The boy with the fawn brown hair put his finger on the corner of his smirking lips. "Don't you think it makes me look more handsome?"

"I don't have any particular opinion about it."

"Don't say that my dear, you're making me sad!" Ichiro put a hand on his chest, frowning sadly. "I have quite the sensitive heart deep down, you see…"

Masaaki blinked before looking away, seeming a bit uncomfortable. "...sorry... I guess."

"See? I know you have a soft side for me, how sweet!"

Suzuka looked at the two boys who were… bickering with each other, perhaps. She wasn't really sure what to make of it, but at least it was a good thing that they weren't paying attention to her. She decided that it would be a good time to actually observe the ten dancer.

He wore a long-sleeved, semi-transparent, black striped latin shirt almost half unbuttoned from the top side of it, exposing his muscular chest (which made it a bit hard for Suzuka to look at it properly). The shirt was tucked neatly into black latin dance trousers, with a pair of black Cuban heel dance shoes completing his dancer look. The boy had a noticeable appearance fitting of his talent, that was for sure.

The student played with the end of the duct tape on her finger as she watched Masaaki and Ichiro talking, trying to be as quiet as she could to not attract any of their attention while they were still busy with each other. Her own subconscious made the girl take a step back, and another, and yet another—closing towards the door where she came from at first.

Just as she was at the very end of her 'escape' attempt, where she just needed to be quick yet still quiet while twisting the doorknob and pushing the door, the sound of someone calling her last name made her freeze in place. She turned around again to look at both boys staring at her, one disapproving with a frown and one unreadable with his smirk.

"At least tell us first if you want to leave, Haruzome. We're not gonna stop you—"

"Oh, but in contrary I would darling," the ten dancer exclaimed dramatically, his hand placed on his forehead as he sighed. "After all, there's so much more to talk about… And the more people see my greatness, the better!"

"I'm," Masaaki pressed on the word as Ichiro laughed, "not going to stop you. I just want to say to not forget to keep the duct tape for a bit so that the splinter will get stuck onto it when you remove it."

"A splinter… you say? That's horrible!" Suzuka started to back away as Ichiro walked closer toward her; she was against the door once the boy stood close enough to her. "I know just the way to fix it…"

She tried to speak up and reject the boy but no words came out from her mouth. Her eyes darted at Masaaki who was saying something, which was drowned by a buzzing that started in her ears, while butterflies in her stomach woke up and tried to get out and lightness started to overcome her head, which all happened together when she finally noticed that Ichiro was right in front of her.

The student squeezed her eyes shut as Ichiro stopped at a distance—it wasn't far enough as she would like it to, and it wasn't close enough that she would start hyperventilating. She felt body warmth that wasn't hers, radiating from someone right in front of her as her right hand was snatched and—

Her eyes snapped open to see the ten dancer getting back to his original height after leaning down, then spitting on the floor. The action reminded her of the sensation she felt just earlier and she looked down at her hand; the duct tape was gone, and in return one of her fingers felt wet and sticky at the same time. But for some reason she felt strangely calm—or not, as it was simply the adrenaline talking in her place as the girl started hyperventilating.

"For the love of—Hijikata, did you just lick her?!"

"I have great confidence in the skill of this great tongue of mine—from tying a cherry stalk, seducing any kind of being, and of course removing splinters! Would you like me to demonstrate it to you right away, darling?"

"No thank you! Now move out of the way—"

"Why—oh, you're so rough! However, I'd be lying if I'd say I hate that…"

"Haruzome—Haruzome, can you hear me? Focus on my voice; try to breathe—"

"I don't think she can hear you, really. Now, why don't we just go and—"

"Move away and don't touch her or I swear I will give you the most excruciating and slowest death you can get!"

Suzuka squeezed her eyes shut once again and clutched onto the neckline of her sweater, gasping for breath as she slid down against the door and onto the floor. The voices from the two boys near her were gone and replaced by a constant buzzing in her ears. Her thoughts were jumbled and focused yet everywhere at the same time; and as she tried to take another gulp of air—

—everything went black.

* * *

 **More A/N:** And that's a wrap for this chapter! I really, really hope I didn't screw up with the characters that showed up in this chapter... In the case that I did though, feel free to hate me (please don't I love y'all just tell me what I did wrong and I'll try to fix it). As always, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I sure don't mind more reviews to motivate me to write the next chapter :cough: which hopefully would come out faster. And speaking of reviews—like before, I'll answer the reviews now! Thanks for the support guys, I really appreciate it :))

* * *

 **PainX65:** I did it Gramps! Hope you're proud of me XD I'm glad you think so—I wonder who remember and who don't :thonker: I guess we'll see about that. Yep, it shall brings more comedic moments, maybe. Here's the next chapter!

 **RioA:** Rio Rio Rio, you're indeed here! Nah, don't worry about procrastination—actually I shouldn't be saying that since I haven't reviewed Disparity. I'LL DO IT SOON I SWEAR! Glad you like the characters introduced so far, maybe you'll like (or dislike) this batch as well. And yep, I can confirm that the memory thing is going to be important... prolly so. Totally coincidence that the moss covered up Muga's talent—or is it? Looks like we got a mystery to solve gang.

 **tobi-is-an-artist-too:** Oh crap, hang in there! I feel like every time I see you on review section you're always gonna pass out, Tobi XD Go get some sleep! But yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks! Here you met more of these kiddos!

 **Sparkquill:** YES! WE DID IT REDDIT!

 **Scissor-Snipper:** Thank you! Indeed, Masaaki's on the list, congrats! And yes, Koyuri was certainly an interesting character and it was a really hard decision, but I ended up choosing our now resident doctor. He's here now—hopefully I portrayed him right, haha.

 **Ziggymia123:** Yep—and as you may see, sometimes we still yell "give Todd" in Discord. Thanks, I'm glad you're happy with my portrayal of Kara. As for what will happen to her, it's definitely 50/50 between survive and die, let's be honest here XD

 **Lupus Overkill:** Oh boy, Lupus is here. I'll zip my mouth before I accidentally confirm something I'm planning about—nah, just kidding. Let's face it, I'm trying to make Suzuka an interesting MC and is failing so far XD She's a growing girl though! And yes I fixed those mistakes (I think), thanks for telling me! Thanks for the compliment! I shall wait for more correction of my mistakes on this chapter haha...

 **TheRoseShadow21:** I did that yes and I'm still so sorry *screams* I hope she'll gain a better place than here! As they said (I'm just randomly telling this I don't know if people say this), you should be wary of the not suspicious one. Maybe. Here's the next chapter, hope you'll enjoy!

 **iBlurt:** Thanks for the compliment! I was worried that maybe I did the chapter too slow and write not-so-good portrayal of the characters so that's actually relieving to read haha. Anyone's up for giving the official-maybe-kinda-who-knows trio a group name? I'm totally fine with that XD Hope you enjoyed this chapter too then!

 **Crimson Spider Lily:** No problem, I'm happy that you sent Himiko! Also yes, THE SPLINTER IS GONE NOW. That method is totally valid I swear—I read that someone accidentally pour honey on the area of their splinter and then licked it and BAM it's gone. Well it's not honey but duct tape, but it works right? Right? I'm glad you're happy with my portrayal of Himiko! MAYOIGA MAYOIGA YAS QUEEN... I don't know why I said that, please forget about it.

 **liammarklh88:** Thanks for the compliment my dude—and nah, you're doing great with your three stories, really. Don't worry about the mistakes, I did that sometimes too haha. And yep, Masakazu is accepted, thanks for sending him in!

 **Swordsman795:** Yes, Suzuka shall learn the hardship of the world through a killing game. That doesn't make sense but then again Danganronpa doesn't make sense. Thanks for the compliment, glad you liked it!

 **BIBOTOT:** Maybe so, maybe not. My mouth is zipped tight! And yes, I'm aware that Ultimate Student is a bit of a weird title... Hopefully I'll be able to clear that out within the story as it progresses. Thanks!

 **gold. spenser:** Yes, I'm so sorry about that! Thank you for your support, and thanks for sending Tori in!

* * *

Oh, and one of the reviews reminded me—I've actually made a Discord server for this story! So yeah, if you'd like me to invite you then feel free to hit me up in the PM and I'll give you the link for it, at least as long as you promised not to cause any drama and read the rules there properly. Warning though, it can be pretty crazy sometimes. The other time it's just empty and barren like wasteland. Sometimes I give sneak peek and stuff for the next chapter or my plans for the story though, so yep. Alright I'll stop promoting now.

No, I lied. I'm promoting someone, specifically **Crimson Spider Lily** who has helped me with my crappy grammar and such! If you wanna see the difference, well, just compare all the A/N plus my reviews reply and the chapter itself—maybe it's clear, maybe it's not. Either way, props to you Crimson, thanks again! Also it's a sudden announcement but now **Shyjoker** is also my official-or-at-least-I-think-so co-writer! She'll be helping me with writing the chapter after all the intros (I want to get a feel of the cast myself first) so give her a round of applause guys!

But yep, that's actually a wrap! Hopefully I didn't fill the chapter with all of my author's notes XD Again, for everyone who has submitted to the story; thank you very much for your great submissions! And I apologize for the ones who didn't get accepted—I'm sure you worked hard for them and I hope they can get a better home than this story. I understand completely if you wouldn't read this story anymore, since I'm guilty of the same thing haha...

I think that's all from me. Have a nice day/evening to all of you who is reading this, I hope the chapter fulfill your expectation. Thanks for reading!


	6. Interlude X-2

**INTERLUDE - SILENT FATE**

* * *

A black-haired man stayed quiet as he pushed what seemed to be a shopping cart filled with ball-jointed wooden dolls. The seemingly old contraption groaned in response to the weight as he pushed it, yet the man simply kept the smile on his face and continued to stroll down the otherwise silent and empty hallway.

Every few minutes, his pale hand had to fix the various wigs placed on the head of the dolls; white with hints of gray and black, long curly silver, messy jet black. All different colored strands, all over the place.

—it was simply another unfortunate task for the unfortunate; who was unfortunately, him.

The boss had jumped on his back in the middle of his work (also managing to make the papers on his desk fly everywhere in response) before literally slamming a key onto his head and quickly running away gleefully afterwards, as if they were one of those children of the first district. In hindsight, he should have expected something similar to happen, but it didn't help how his head hurt quite a lot after that event.

An open elevator greeted him, the dim lighting bouncing off the gray metallic colored walls of the interior. He stopped on his tracks near the elevator and gently lifted the dolls one by one. The sight of it was almost similar to a gravedigger taking corpses to their final resting places; everything was silent as the lights flickered, creating an eerie scene.

The man paused when he came across a specific doll; one with blackish brown wig in medium length.

"A poor victim of fate," he stated quietly as he gently put the doll down onto the elevator floor, joining other dolls propped against the wall. He knelt while caressing the wig, closing his gold eyes as he felt the silky hair between his fingers. "You were perfect for this game—but unfortunately for you, Miss, perfection isn't always necessarily beautiful."

Perfection is a flaw, so to speak. Just like how a patissiere would try to destroy a symmetrical-looking cake, like how an artist would refrain from trying to draw the same thing in the same place in the same situation. Like how _he_ was also—

He opened his eyes slowly before he stood up, backing away from the elevator as he took a silver key from the breast pocket of his dress shirt. Turning it inside of the keyhole on the wall, the elevator door closed, separating the man and the dolls. He looked down in prayer, mumbling something under his breath, too quiet to be heard.

However sudden, loud repeating knocks made the man blink as he looked at the source of sound. It was coming from above. The corners of the man's lips twitched, but the everlasting polite smile stayed firmly on his face.

The man turned his body around as he placed his hand on the shopping cart. The knocks had yet to stop, though it would most likely be over by the time he arrived upstairs. He started walking, leaving the shopping cart behind, towards a room with row of stairs.

The lights flickered every once in a while, accompanying him as he kept on walking. The sound of creaking floorboard was very much a thing he was used to. It wasn't very long until he arrived in another room—a room very familiar to him.

Coffins were rooted firmly on where they were supposed to be; some with their lids opened (with some of them on the floor—he would need to put them all back later) while some others stayed closed. The knocking had stopped at some point while the man had been ascending the stairs, and it was quite relieving that it did. As though he had said that like some sort of jinx however, it started again.

The man lips quirked upwards as he let out a quiet chuckle. He supposed this was inevitable; they did gave the boy the right to know several parts of the game. Was this perhaps 'karma'? With how they didn't say anything else before putting him in the middle of all of this, perhaps it was perfectly natural for him to panic a little—that was simply how human are, always wanting to know what was happening around them.

He had no need for worry though, seeing how the door was locked tight. No one should be able to come in, no matter how hard they tried to pick the lock or kick the door. The knocking was perhaps a bit of an annoyance to his concentration but other than that, the man was perfectly fine.

And so he started to walk back towards the rows of stairs. The sound of his footsteps bounced off the room, and a soft smile bloomed on his face.

(May you all pass this game.)

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey hey, guess who's alive! I know, it's been a while since I updated and then; just an interlude? I would explain and gave what I've been doing all this time in chronological paragraph but you guys prolly don't wanna hear that so I'll just give a summary. Can't remember if I said it in previous chapter, but I've entered university and uh, may or may not have some difficulty with settling in and all. Basically been making new friends and participating in stuff to be more active even though I don't do much. BUT! I'm progressing on the next chapter as we speaking, hopefully I can get it out within next month. And not like this where I think the A/N is waaay longer than the actual chapter. I'm so sorry guys.

Anyways, not gonna say much beside that. This interlude may or may not happen before the next chapter, after the next chapter, or during the next chapter. Who knows? I do appreciate if you guys can tell me what you think of it! Also I hope there aren't any case of disappearing readers but considering how I haven't updated in a while, guess that's understandable. And my whole thank to **irwegwert** for beta-ing this interlude! Go check on him and his SYOC out guys, even though most of you who is reading this probably already did. But hey, gotta promote still.

Alright guys, that's all from me I guess. Guess we'll go to the review replies after this. Anyways, thanks for reading this! I hope yall can be patient for the next chapter haha. Promise it'll be worth it... oh, wait. Uh, _maybe_ it will? Depends on you guys I guess. But yeah, I'm out!

* * *

 **liammarklh88:** Thanks for the compliments! And nah, you're still way better than me especially with how many stories you have running and all. Hopefully the wait to see your character will be worth it. Knowing me, maybe? But yeah, thanks for the review either way!

 **PainX65:** Yep Gramps, hit you up already. Also it's no problem! I don't particularly mind, you probably have way better things to do than helping me anyway lol. And yes, still waaaay more to go. I'm dying already, help. Seems like Masaaki gained a lot of liking so far from everyone, though maybe that's because he removed the splinter, I dunno. You'll see more of them later in the story so maybe your opinion's gonna change though! Or maybe not. Also whoohoo, thanks!

 **Scissor-Snipper:** Hey there! I'm glad you think Masaaki's portrayal is accurate, I was kinda worried for it haha. Yep, the grammar is finally improved thanks to all these guys who I can't believe actually helping me. They're all heroes. But my grammar on A/N is still a wack. Oh well, thanks!

 **tobi-is-an-artist-too:** Super glad to hear that! Sleep is important, after all. Thanks, I'm glad I'm portraying Luka right. Was a bit worried if she wasn't talking enough actually, haha. Your story is awesome too though, I love both the main chapters and the shorts! Anyways though, thanks for the review!

 **Ziggymia123:** Huzzah indeed. I can't believe the splinter finally got removed, RIP. We'll see more bout all these people as the story progress, of course! But I'm glad you're liking the cast so far. Thank you!

 **SanityRequiem:** Oh no, Req is in the review section, RUN! Just kidding, please don't. I can't believe shipping is happening already, oh god. And yep, lots of yall seem to not like Ichiro that much, but let's see if that's gonna change as the story goes! NOT THE PEANUTS _AAAAAA_ -

 **RioA:** Hey hey! Sorry to hear that, but it's been a while since the day so the electricity is already working again I assume lol. Thank you so much for the compliments! That means a lot, considering I love your works Rio haha. Hm hm, maybe so maybe not. Guess we'll see! I'm indeed taking my time, perhaps too much... hahahaha. Thanks!

 **TheRoseShadow21:** Yes, the accursed splinter shall begone. Suzuka's gonna be fine, she has plot armor after all... or not? I don't even know lol. And yep, thanks for the review!

 **Crimson Spider Lily:** Heeeyy! I'm glad you think so, guess we all see! I tried to make the place as creepy as I could but not too much so glad it worked haha. I'm sure you're glad that the splinter is removed Crim, did it do something bad to you in the past though lol. Please don't die though. Glad you're liking think so, and thanks!

 **BIBOTOT:** Who knows, who knows. At this point even I don't lol. Hopefully you'll be able to see the rest of the cast soon. Thanks!

 **Lupus Overkill:** Thanks for the compliment! I know that I'm good at something now at least haha... And yeah, I guess they fit with each other? I'm glad you think so. Yep it's so slow oh god I'm so sorry with the slow pace and all _aaaaaa_. Hopefully the next chapter will be coming soon! Thanks for the review!


	7. Prologue 0-4

**A/N:** Guess who's still alive with a new chapter, woooo! I did it guys, I updated with not so much time from when I updated the interlude! I focused all my heart in this story for two days (and kinda abandoned everything else) and finally finished the next set of introduction! Now I'm gonna keep this is short because I haven't eaten anything yet for today—hopefully the hunger didn't intervene with how well I portrayed the characters that appeared here, because if so then I'm screwed guys I'm sorry. Please tell me if I did your characters wrong somehow. Anyways, bet you guys can't wait to read (nah) so there ya go! Enjoy!

* * *

 **PROLOGUE - A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING [PART #4]**

* * *

Suzuka woke up.

Her mind felt fuzzy, as if a swarm of bees was buzzing inside of her head. Though as she started to panic, the feeling lessened little by little as the buzzing was replaced by voices that she was sure she didn't recognize the slightest—though there was also a voice that just barely sounded familiar.

"...passed out… didn't—"

"...maybe..."

"...can't remember..."

The girl realized that she her eyes were closed yet she kept them closed anyway, hiding her orange irises from whoever was near her. The conversation that was going on around her kept on, the voices getting clearer and clearer as more time passed.

"You said that both you and Haruzome-han have lost your memories, yes? That simply won't do, to think that she would wake up with what she thinks are strangers around her… Quite the ordeal she is having. Wouldn't you agree with me, Ketsuraku-han? ...Ketsuraku-han?"

"...Ah! Sorry, are we still talking about how I know Yakumo?"

"N-no..."

"Is that… how she usually acts? Ah, I do not mean to be rude… or anything..."

Suzuka focused on the conversation in reflex, her mind still trying to collect itself together while she tried to remember what happened before this. The student at least remembered the time when she woke up in a coffin, met some people and went off by herself, and then—

(Oh… right—the daycare. Hijikata...san...)

The student wiggled her fingers subconsciously, shuddering as the puzzle pieces inside her mind started to form into a clear image. Her breath started to quicken again and she opened her eyes suddenly before closing them due to the bright light blinded her sight.

"Haruzome-san?"

Suzuka opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times as the haze in her mind cleared up little by little. She eventually realized that she was laying down, and was on something hard and cold. Both of her hands supported the girl as she tried to get up, though from the shakiness of them almost made her slip if not for a familiar hand with a charm bracelet around the wrist.

"K-Kimura...san…?" The student blinked as to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. The hold on her hand disappeared, but the sight of the familiar gentle smile on the nature photographer calmed her down and she took a deep breath before releasing it. "I… Where am I…?"

While she asked the question first her eyes already darted around, trying to survey her surrounding. As her hands gripped at the thing that she was laying down on, she realized that it was an armless wooden bench. A wooden table stood right next to her; there was another bench on the other side of the table which was long enough for quite a lot of people to gather around it. In fact, a girl with messy, curly pale pink hair in a pixie cut was sitting right across of her, seemingly scribbling something on a notepad with another hand playing with her bangs while she was hunching and mumbling something about amnesia and a strange place.

The student stared at the girl for a bit, observing as she moved to a comfortable sitting position, trying to calm herself down. The stranger had an athletic build, being tall with slight curves and noticeable large bust. Despite this though, her features were soft and somewhat childish; what with the light blue downturned eyes and a thin, straight nose, all complemented by her pale skin.

The most prominent piece of clothing the girl was wearing was definitely the light blue lab coat. It covered a light yellow dress shirt and unfortunately for Suzuka she didn't manage to get a good look to see more of the unknown girl's clothing because the fact that she was sitting down and the lab coat covered the lower half of the girl with the pink hair. Something took the student's attention as she tried to look more; a magenta handkerchief (or she assumed it was a handkerchief—she can't be too sure considering the only thing that she saw was just a small magenta triangle) in a pocket that was located on the lab coat's right breast side.

"The sign said that this place is called the 'mess hall'... We thought about bringing you to the cabin, but the door refused to budge—Takeba-san stayed there after lecturing Hijikata-san who went off somewhere." Suzuka blinked as she looked back at hearing the familiar voice of the ginger. Her eyes wandered to survey the place again; it seemed like this 'mess hall' was outdoors, only protected from the rain and sunlight with its hay roof that was supported by wooden pillars on each corner. "While it does not seem like one, I suppose... we are also going to call it that…"

"Why, it doesn't matter that much Kimura-han." A girl with long black hair (the student can't see how long it was, but it clearly went over her back and more) smiled from behind Natsumi who simply blinked when she turned around. The girl reminded Suzuka of a geisha, with all the white makeup covering her face and neck. "I'd say the magnificent view balanced the imprecise name, wouldn't you say so?"

"I... suppose so...?"

Suzuka watched as the second unknown girl talked to Natsumi. She was about to observe the girl further but before she could even do so the girl turned to look at her and walked closer with elegant steps that seemed ethereal—which was quite a feat considering how she was wearing a fitted loosely, long purple silk robe that was embroidered with various pink and red flowers all over the fabric. The nature photographer also moved closer to the student with a somewhat worried face, following the black-haired girl.

"I suppose I should introduce myself once more, considering your circumstances and all, Haruzome-han." The girl gave the mentioned girl a polite smile as she stopped at a comfortable distance. Suzuka just blinked in response, wondering whether the stranger who was once her classmate (if Himiko wasn't really lying) knew about her uneasiness with people and was being considerate. "It's lovely to meet you once again. My name is Fujiwara no Otome, but you're welcome to refer to me simply as "Fujiwara," or "Otome". I'm known as the Ultimate Yamato-e Artist."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **OTOME FUJIWARA / / ULTIMATE YAMATO-E ARTIST**

* * *

"'Fujiwara no'… " Suzuka tilted her head, eyes showing curiosity. Otome seemed to sense this as she stood up straighter, if that was even possible considering the girl's perfect posture. "That's—um, the name… You're using it so—does that mean you're a descendant of the Fujiwara clan? Or is there some kind of other explanation...?"

One of the uses of the Japanese particle 'no' was as a possessive particle, and exactly that was the use of it in 'Fujiwara no Otome'. "Otome of the Fujiwara clan" was certainly an interesting person to meet for Suzuka who loved history classes, with the Fujiwara clan being the most powerful clan back in the Heian-era. The student wondered if she was the real deal though; the Fujiwara clan had split into few different families back between the 12th and 19th century, and the people who used the surname 'Fujiwara' to these days were simply Japanese people—nothing more and nothing less.

"Ah—of course! I seemed to have forgotten that you seem to love the history classes back in school, Haruzome-han. You also inquired the same thing when we first met." Otome chuckled while covering the lower half of her face with the wide sleeve of her robe, seeming very lady-like. "And yes... I'm simply delighted to see that people are yet to get bored from our nation's history."

Suzuka just nodded as her eyes started to wander subconsciously to the girl in front of her. The girl really reminded her of the women in Heian-era paintings, what with the red blush on her cheeks and the same colored lipstick, with penciled eyebrows complementing her dark brown eyes. The student blinked when she realized that the yamato-e artist didn't exactly answer her question. She was just about to speak up about it though before she can, once again, Natsumi spoke before her.

"School—were we all back at school... before this happened…?" Natsumi voiced her thoughts and the student unconsciously nodded in agreement to the question. That was also a thing to notice; she would honestly prefer school over a village or whatever this place was. With the reminder that she didn't know anything at all, the girl frowned and licked her dry lips.

For some reason Otome chuckled again, and smiled at the two who had lost their memories. "That's correct. Of course, I myself had gotten quite flustered at first, waking up in a coffin and finding myself in an abandoned village was certainly not a pleasing experience. But thinking about the form, it made sense somehow, yes—"

(The form…? Another thing that I don't know about...)

Suzuka's frown deepened unconsciously and she clutched her red skirt tightly as her stomach churned. The feeling of not knowing something—it was starting to get to her again; the burning feeling on the pit of her stomach, the lightness of her head, and the way her chest seemed to tighten. She took a quiet deep breath and shook her head, trying to focus back to the conversation that was going on. If she wanted to figure things out, she would need to pay more attention.

"What do you—"

"U-um, Fujiwara-san…!" A masculine voice that came from a distance made both Suzuka and Otome jumped slightly in surprise (Natsumi didn't seem to be surprised nor offended that the boy cut through her words while the second girl that the student had yet to know the name was perhaps too deep in her own mind to notice). "Maybe, you should consider the fact that all of us here beside yourself have lost our memories…? I think we're all confused… But, ah—I don't mean to be rude or anything…!"

Suzuka looked in the direction of the voice to see an auburn-haired feminine-looking boy; his small, thin lips curved into a smile with apparent dimples and defined, slanted eyelashes adorning his round face. He seemed to notice the stare and turned his head to look at her, only dipping his head slightly as their eyes met each other and looked away afterwards (though not quick enough that it was rude, the student noticed).

"That is… correct, Yakumo-han." The yamato-e artist coughed onto her sleeve and nodded, putting it down and showing a somewhat sheepish smile. "My apologies everyone, that was simply rude of me to forget about your situation."

"No… it is fine," Natsumi said softly, showing her gentle smile. "The situation would make anyone… flustered enough to forget some things… It is natural. But, mhm… I have been wanting to ask about something…"

Otome's smile turned just a tiny bit wider in response and she seemed to sigh in relief—Suzuka wasn't sure since the other girl turned around when she did it. She did looked at Natsumi afterwards with a bright smile on her face, however. "Of course! How may I assist you, Kimura-han?"

"I do not think that… the other two introduced themselves…" The nature photographer smiled apologetically towards the remaining two people Suzuka didn't recognize. The student blinked as she heard this—didn't Natsumi stay long enough around these people that they had the chance to introduce themselves to each other? If she heard correctly before, the ginger already explained about the whole amnesia thing to the others too... Maybe she just arrived here right before the student woke up and was in the middle of explaining it. Suzuka shook her head lightly and observed as the boy jumped, while the still unknown girl didn't seem to hear Natsumi. That wasn't any important information, not really.

"A-ah—you want to know m-my name…?" The boy responded first after a few seconds of silence when the girl with pale pink hair didn't pay them any attention, looking quite flustered as he played with the silver watch and leather bracelet around his left wrist, though a smile remained on his face. "My name is Yakumo Kaemi... I'm, uh—I'm the Ultimate Therapist."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **KAEMI YAKUMO / / ULTIMATE THERAPIST**

* * *

Kaemi wore a black blazer over a light blue collared shirt that hid his feminine and lean figure, with a diamond-shaped locket connected to a golden necklace and a silver-chain necklace holding a pair of black bifocal glasses around his neck. His shirt was tucked neatly inside of tight blue jeans while a black belt secured it. A pair of black dress boots completed his somewhat formal look, although his hair said otherwise; a black butterfly hairpin held his swept-left bangs, his hair reaching just below his ears with a strand of hair curved from the right side of his head, reminding Suzuka of a small orbit.

"I see—it is a pleasure to meet you… again, I suppose?" An awkward laugh and nod were all the ginger got as a reply, understandable considering that the boy also seemed to not have his memory either. The student watched as Natsumi smiled in return and turned to look at the other girl who had been staying quiet this whole time; at least it was so ever since she woke up.

"Ketsuraku-san—Ketsuraku-san, um h-hey..." The therapist was tapping the unknown girl's shoulder with one finger; it took a moment for the latter to realize that, but once she did the girl looked up from her notepad and smiled.

"Oh, what is it, Yakumo?"

"Uh, introductions..." He touched the back of his neck, his monolid emerald green eyes darting everywhere as if he didn't know where to put his gaze. Now that Suzuka thought of it, he was the only boy here right now. She wondered if he felt uncomfortable about it somehow. "So..."

The girl blinked and looked back at her notepad and then looked back at the others after a few seconds. "Ah—right, we need to introduce ourselves because of the whole amnesia thing right? Let's see... My name is Ketsuraku Yui! I'm the Ultimate Prosthetist..." She trailed off as her face scrunched up a bit as if thinking before she smiled again. "That's all for introduction, right? I'm not forgetting anything?"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **YUI KETSURAKU / / ULTIMATE PROSTHETIST**

* * *

Kaemi shook his head. "No, you did fine, Ketsuraku-san. Good job."

Yui's smile widened slightly at hearing that, her face having a warm glow to it. Suzuka looked at the two as they smiled at each other in comfortable silence, though it was disturbed after by rustling of paper that made all of them looked at Natsumi who was flipping through the other girl's notepad (it was quite weird that no one noticed her moving away from the student). Seemingly noticing their stare, the nature photographer stopped and stepped away from it. "Ah—my apologies. I got curious... because Ketsuraku-san was focusing on this... for quite some time, earlier..."

The prosthetist simply shook her head and laughed lightly. "Don't worry about it—um, Kimura?" The mentioned girl nodded her head as confirmation. "Ah, yeah—sorry, I'll remember it. Just let me write it down for a bit... There. You know, it's great that I still have my notepad. I prefer writing things and my thoughts down to remember them, though maybe you have other methods for yourself? This method works great for me so I've just been sticking with it..."

Suzuka observed as Natsumi kept her smile on her face and listened to the girl's chatter. Her gaze trailed from them to the other two who were also in a similar situation, with Otome explaining something about fine art and Kaemi listening intently with a thoughtful look on his face.

Seeing that the others were busy talking with each other, the student decided to look around the area more and looked towards the place with the balance scale statue. Oddly enough... there wasn't anyone in within her sight. Not even Kara who was there before. If there was fifteen—sixteen students here including her, she thought that at least one of them would be outside. That didn't seem to be the case however... it was a bit unsettling, for some reason.

She jumped when someone touched her hand that was on the table, almost falling from the bench if it wasn't for the nature photographer supporting her back. The only boy there looked panicked with his hands lifted in air and doing some gestures, seemingly trying to do something while Otome looked surprised and Yui who was the apparent culprit just looked at the student while tilting her head slightly, her left hand still hanging in air from when she touched her.

"Um... did I do something wrong...?"

Biting down on her lower lip, Suzuka stayed quiet as she tried to calm her hammering heart down. Though when she realized that there were still hands on her back she immediately tensed and moved away, almost falling again though she managed to hold the bench for balance. She trembled a bit, her breathing uneven as she unconsciously checked her back—nothing was there.

"Haruzome-san—it is alright... I should not have touched you, my apologies..." A familiar gentle voice reached into her ears but she can't focus on it, with the lingering feeling of the physical contact on her back and hand earlier haunting her. "Just breathe—in, and out... Please... calm down..."

Her eyes squeezed tight (she can't remember when she closed them, she can't remember anything—) and she focused on the sound instead of the ghost touch she was left with. Gentle, worried, explaining, confused; all the voices were mixing together and making her breathing quicken. Someone seemed to realize this and said something to the others, but Suzuka can't hear anything with the buzzing in her ears muting everything else.

Suzuka breathed in and out, remembering what Natsumi had said. Her breathing got slower as the buzzing trailed to nothing—no, not exactly nothing. The voices of people started to fill her ears, with the more familiar voice of Natsumi heard first before the others. The sound of casual chatter with a tiny hint of worry made the student calm down; she was fine. Nothing big happened—nothing bad happened. Everything was normal.

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. As her head turned around she looked at the people who was sitting across of her. Her eyes met Natsumi's though she immediately looked away and kept her arms near her chest. The conversation continued, yet she can feel some gazes upon her every once in a while. Her breathing eventually slowed back to normal, and she took another deep breath before looking at the others who were now looking at her. She immediately looked away.

"Haruzome-san—are you, um—" The therapist was the first one who started speaking. The surprise was enough for the student to forget about the uncomfortable feeling she got from everyone staring at her as she looked at him with a questioning look, making his permanent smile fade just a tiny bit. "Ah—t-that's, um... Do you... want to talk about it...?"

The student went completely silent at this. She didn't understand—there wasn't anything to talk about. So the answer was obvious; she shook her head. "I... there's nothing to talk about...?"

"But, your reaction earlier..." The way the auburn-haired boy sound made it seem like he was worried sick, but Suzuka really didn't understand why would he be like that. She didn't (refused to) understand at all. On the corner of her eye, she can see Natsumi slowly standing up and moving towards her. "I don't think that was healthy...! Did... did something happen that made you react like that? I can help—"

"I... No, it's—" Suzuka moved away from the hand that was about to reach her, stumbling a bit while her eyes stared at it warily. She looked up at the therapist and bit her lower lip. "That was—just... don't touch me, please."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but the call of his name from the nature photographer stopped him. The ginger hovered over the student, though still in a comfortable distance that didn't trigger the same reaction that she responded to Kaemi with. "I think that was... enough, yes, Yakumo-san? You are making... Haruzome-san uncomfortable."

The boy froze and parted his lips, looking a bit pale as he finally saw Suzuka's guarded look while she looked anywhere beside him. "I—oh, I... I-I'm so sorry—"

"It's fine, Yakumo. There there." The prosthetist who had been staying quiet suddenly spoke up and petted the now flustered, Kaemi's head. A warm smile bloomed on her face. "You can be pretty overbearing sometimes, right? But you stopped when you got reminded, I think? You did, mhm. But yes, that's good—good boy... There there."

"K-Ketsuraku-san...!"

The two seemed to be in their own world as the pale-pinkette continued to reassure the panicking yet still blushing therapist. Suzuka blinked at this; it didn't look like they have lost their memory at all. In fact, it seemed like the two were quite good friends—maybe it had something to do with what she heard when she just woke up? That, or they were lying for some reason.

"Haruzome-san, are you... feeling alright...?" Natsumi's voice brought her out of her thought (it tended to do that, now that she thought about it—maybe ). The nature photographer was standing behind her, face showing worry though with a smile still on it. "Would you maybe... like to go somewhere else?"

Would she? The thought was a very tempting one—she preferred to be alone, no matter how people might say that there was safety in numbers. This might as well be the time for her to escape from these people. As she was just about to nod, her eyes wandered to see Otome who once noticed the gaze immediately smiled. A spark went through her mind as she remembered something that she previously said—

(There was a form—something I didn't know about. I need to know.)

"Fujiwara-san," she called the yamato-e artist, though her voice seemed to grab everyone's attention. The black-haired girl herself perked up and looked at her with her head tilted slightly in a questioning glance. "That's—before... you said something about a form..."

This seemed to grab even more attention, because now everyone was staring at Otome. The girl cleared her throat before she nodded and stood up straight, putting her hands on her lap.

"The school kindly gave us quite the intriguing assignment for summer vacation, to not bore us with just simple homework, perhaps…" The student perked up when she heard the word 'assignment' and looked right at Otome, suddenly looking more curious than she already was. "We were told to fill a form with questions regarding our… personal stance, so to speak. Although there was that one particularly peculiar section..."

"What was… it about…?" Natsumi asked, who also seemed curious (maybe even more than Suzuka herself). Her eyes showed something else, though it was gone before Suzuka can take a second look. "The section, I mean..."

"We heard it from Koizumi-han, quite the surprise it was—" Otome giggled a bit, though no one seemed to share the sentiment for the what seemed to be an inside joke, "—but apparently she had heard things from her coworkers. That is, about Danganronpa."

"Dangan…ronpa…?" Suzuka frowned slightly as she repeated the word over and over inside of her head. Nothing came out from it—the word didn't ring any bell at all. It was another thing she didn't know about. When she looked around, it was apparent that the others didn't know about it either—that made her feel a bit relieved.

"Yes." The yamato-e artist nodded as she fiddled with her sleeve, looking down. "I might not be the one suited to relay this information to all of you, however. Unfortunately as it is, I'm admittedly not that knowledgeable about the topic of the game... Either Fey-han or Ohno-han would be more than willing to tell you all about it, I reckon."

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "Fey, as in...? Also... a 'game'...?"

"It's Fey Todd-han, one of our class representatives back at the school. I encountered him running somewhere as I was about to stop by the restrooms around the back." Otome gestured to a wooden wall that Suzuka only noticed now; she might as well check it out later and wash her hands—the moss from before was still under her nails. "He said something about trying to find an exit from this place, so perhaps you won't see him for a while."

"Is that so..." This time it was Suzuka saying this out loud, though the girl herself didn't seem to realize it. That was quite disappointing—she was still curious about the whole 'form' and 'Danganronpa' things were all about. But she supposed she would have to find this 'Todd' if she wanted to know more. Well, either him or Himiko; who didn't say anything about it when they met, now that she thought about it. Maybe she didn't find it worthy enough to be brought up?

Though with that said—her reason to stay here was now non-existent. Natsumi who also seemed to realized this nodded at her and tilted her head slightly, keeping her hands on her each of her sides. "Would you like to explore somewhere else now, Haruzome-san?"

The student nodded back as she slowly stood up from the bench. The others followed in suit except for Yui who stared back at her notepad and started to mumble something under her breath while writing; Suzuka fidgeted in her place as her eyes darted from one person to the other.

"Um—there's no need to follow me... I prefer exploring alone..." She mumbled before she licked her lips once more, wiggling her fingers as she stared at the wooden flooring, focusing her attention on it. This unfortunately prevented her to hear clearly whatever Kaemi was about to say that got cut off by a sharp throat clearing from Natsumi once she looked up again.

The nature photographer just smiled at seeing her questioning glance. "That is fine, Haruzome-san. We will see you later then?"

Her head nodded again in reflex, and the other three people there replied with a different version of "see you later" before Suzuka walked away from the place (maybe with a bit too much vigor). She noticed another board propped on one of the pillars that said "Mess Hall"; so Natsumi was telling the truth. That meant that they would eat here... though she didn't spy anything that suggested that they could cook here. Maybe there was a kitchen somewhere else then? She would have to investigate more.

Suzuka perked up at seeing another sign that said "Restroom". Behind it was two wooden doors, each having a gender sign; male on the right and female on the left. She entered the female restroom without a thought—thankfully for her, it was empty with no one in sight. Or at least she thought so. It was hard to see with the only light coming from the door that she hadn't close yet.

She searched for a light switch on the wooden wall (carefully; she didn't want to have another splinter and for... that, to happen again). Her eyes squinted as she blinked a few times, adjusting to the darkness of the place. There were two stalls right in front of her, with a withered potted plant of some sort on the right side and two mirrors complemented with sinks on the left side of the restroom. Failing to find a switch, the student slowly moved towards one of the sinks.

The water was surprisingly clean, she thought as she washed her hands. The bits of moss under her fingernails fell down into the silver sink, decorating the small forming water puddle with tiny black spots. She quickened her pace and dried her hand She took her time as she thoroughly removed the bits of moss still sticking under her fingernails. The silence was comforting—no one was there to watch her, so she could do whatever.

With the moss gone, she took out a light blue handkerchief from the pocket of her skirt and dried her hand off as she looked up—staring directly into a stained mirror (stained with what, she didn't know). She could barely see her light brown hair and the blue ribbon tying it up into a pigtail. She kept staring to the place behind her from the mirror; while ghosts didn't exist, humans sure did and she preferred to not meet anyone else in a small place like this.

As she got out from the restroom, her eyes narrowed once again as the sunlight shined down upon her. Suzuka closed the door to the restroom and looked around—still no people, thankfully. She released a quiet sigh of relief before deciding to go to her right; if she remembered correctly, she had yet to check that way yet.

What greeted the student was a big house; or a cabin, if you wanted to be technical. All made from logs of wood, the cabin had (as she expected) a board with "Cabin" written on it that was propped on one side of the front wall. She noticed that there were vines rooting itself on the wall, though it wasn't as bad as the daycare. Two high stone walls stood tall on each side of the cabin, giving it some kind of protective look. Masaaki wasn't there as what Natsumi said; maybe the doctor had gone somewhere else—the ginger did said that they couldn't open it.

She shook her head and walked towards the cabin. Even though the nature photographer said what she said, the student still preferred to check it out herself. A quick shaking of the doorknob proved to be useless as the door refused to budge. She pursed her lips; she'd prefer knowing about what was inside, considering that maybe it was going to be a place where they were all going to sleep while they live here—

(We're... going to live here...?)

Suzuka froze at the thought. They were all trapped here; with no one in charge of the situation they were in, there was no way to know why they were brought here. But with the cabin and mess hall existing; it was as if someone was expecting all of them to live here. That was... impossible, right? The ones who remembered things like Himiko, Kara, Luka, Sho, Otome—they all weren't looking worried, so there must be no need to worry—yeah, that was it.

She took a deep breath and let it out, before she nodded to herself and walked away from the cabin. There wasn't any time to ponder about that; she still needed to explore this place. Her eyes glanced at a building connected to the cabin—there wasn't any sign that gave a hint to what it was, but she saw glass panels high up, the border almost touching the roof. The girl faintly heard the sound of flowing water... maybe it was a bathhouse of some sort. She can't tell until she saw it herself. Still, it was better to leave and explore away from here—at least for now.

The thought of living in this place made her body shiver; she rushed away from the place to see another building (a familiar one—) and also a boy with short messy white hair with a few strands covering his forehead—the latter making her freeze in her place. This was proven to be bad, as he turned away from whatever he was looking at to see her directly in the eyes.

"Ah... Haruzome-kun." He dipped his head low in greeting and moved his hands that were holding each other behind the back of his body to the front, showing a brown prayer rosary band around his right wrist, a silver watch on the other wrist, and was holding an opened bible. The boy seemed like he was about to say more, but suddenly stumbled forward as though something pushed him—

"Book!"

"Oh—Suzuka, hey!"

Familiar heads of silver, black and rose gold with silver poked out from behind the unknown boy, showing a big smile from each face of Tsura and Himiko (who for some reason had scrapes and stray branches on them). The ballerina rushed towards her first, while the escape artist didn't seem to notice her and instead focused on the stranger who was rubbing his head while looking down at him with half-closed red eyes.

This was the chance, Suzuka realized; she needed to ask about the whole Danganronpa thing to Himiko. Before she could even open her mouth to speak though the other girl was already right in front of her and she immediately took a step back, overwhelmed. "Ohno-san—"

"Come on, don't be so stiff! I told you, just call me Himiko!" The girl laughed cheerfully and put her right hand on her waist, her pose showing confidence. Suzuka scrunched up her face as she shook her head and took a few more steps back when Himiko took a step forward.

"I—um," the student paused and licked her dry lips, "you never said that."

There was a moment of pause until the ballerina blinked and tilted her head. "Wait, really?" Suzuka nodded in response and the girl's lips formed an "O"—it took another pause before she laughed again. "Well, I'll tell you now then! We're friends, so there's no need to be so formal, yeah?"

"That's—um, we're... friends...?" Suzuka didn't know what to think of that. Her parents taught her to be respectful to anyone, especially the authority figures who were clearly above her—but she didn't have enough 'friends' to be able to know what should and shouldn't be done. Her face paled a bit as she noticed that the girl had lost her smile, but it came back as quick as it went away.

"Duh! I'm friends with everyone, so that should be obvious!" The brunette side-stepped when Himiko tried to slap her shoulder, giving her a glance with a mixture of nervousness and fear. This seemed to stop the rose-gold-haired girl as she put her hand down and laugh awkwardly. "Ah, sorry—did I make you uncomfortable?"

"You should be aware by now that Haruzome-kun dislikes physical touch, yes?" Himiko perked up and turned to look at the boy Suzuka didn't know, showing a look that made him shake his head with exasperation. In the back, Tsura tilted his head as he followed; not too much of a choice considering the chain connected to his collar was in the unknown boy's hand now. "I understand that you are happy to see her, but that doesn't excuse your action, Ohno-kun."

"I know, I know..." The ballerina sighed and shrunk at the mercy of the boy—it was like seeing a father scolding his daughter. Suzuka wouldn't know considering her father never did it; not in her memory at least. The student jumped when Himiko suddenly turned again to look at her, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry Suzuka—didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"It's... fine?" Suzuka took a moment to think before she nodded to herself and fidgeted a bit, her eyes looking anywhere but the girl in front of her. "You didn't manage to touch me so—um, it's fine. You're forgiven."

A big, warm smile bloomed on Himiko's face—the student honestly thought that the girl would hug her, but it seemed like she remembered the scolding and refrained herself to, making Suzuka sigh in relief as she clutched the end of her skirt.

"Haruzome-kun." The mentioned girl identified the deep male voice as the stranger's and she looked up, seeing the boy in a comfortable distance while Tsura was... licking his own palm beside him. She really couldn't figure the escape artist out—as she thought about that, the unknown boy cleared his throat. "I have heard the news from Takeba-kun. He said that some of us, you included, have lost their memory?"

She nodded and released her hold on the end of her skirt, replacing the action with another by wiggling her fingers as she looked down on the ground. "That's—true, yes..."

"I understand," the boy closed his eyes at the same time he closed his bible, putting it on his chest before opening his eyes again. Tsuramatsu's chain that he held created a sound as it hit each other when he scratched the dark black stubble on his face. "I shall introduce myself once again then. My name is Boseki Masakazu, the Ultimate Gravedigger. I pray that we may become fast acquaintances, all circumstances aside."

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **MASAKAZU BOSEKI / / ULTIMATE GRAVEDIGGER**

* * *

The boy's appearance was quite intimidating for Suzuka. The black long sleeved sweater with a grey vest and a dirty brown open hoodie jacket that he wore failed to hide his muscular physique, clearly defined muscles and all that were pressed against his sweater. Light blue jeans with dirt smudges on near the lower parts and holes near the knee areas hugged his legs, with white and black running shoes complementing his whole look. The student stared at the jeans for a bit before she bit her lower lip and shook her head—she didn't want the thing that happened with Sho to happen again.

"Is something the matter, Haruzome-kun?" The sudden question made her jump. Masakazu raised an eyebrow as he looked at her—now that she was forced to look at him properly, she noticed the diagonal scar that ran across his mouth. He noticed her stare and cleared his throat again, and the girl turned slightly red as she looked away.

"Staring at someone is not good, yes? You might make them uncomfortable." She flinched at the stern tone—her face reddened a bit more as the realization that she got caught had started to set in.

"I—mhm, you're right..." Suzuka hung her head down as she pursed her lips. Her heart started hammering against her chest as her stomach twisted; she did something wrong—that wasn't allowed. She stood up straight and looked at the boy again, bowing her head slightly. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable..."

He hummed in approval and gave her a nod. "Very good. As long as you don't do it again, you should be fine."

The student nodded and moved her hand to clutch at her shirt. He really was like a father, she thought as she let out a shaky breath. But it felt nice, somewhat. Her parents rarely reprimanded her for things she did wrong; then again though, she rarely did anything wrong. Doing something wrong felt like a sin—it wasn't allowed. Not for her. She shouldn't repeat another mistake—or in fact, do any other mistake.

A purr distracted her focus as she looked towards the source of the sound. Just as she thought, the sound came from Tsura who was now with Himiko, with the later laughing as she scratched the back of his ear. The gravedigger also looked at the two and proceeded to smile when he saw what was happening.

"Kazu—give me the chain, yeah? I really can watch him, I swear! It's still my turn, so please...!" The ballerina reached her hand out and gave Masakazu a look that simply made him put his bible down and raise an eyebrow, making the girl whine. "Super please? Come on, I know my skill the best!"

"I suppose you are talking about the skill that made me stumble upon Inu-kun," the mentioned boy perked up and let out a light giggle before he licked Himiko's wrist which in return made the girl laugh, "in the woods back here? If that was it, then I would recommend another set of skills, Ohno-kun."

Himiko pouted and she grabbed Tsura's chain before pulling it slightly towards her direction, making the escape artist's face turn brighter for some reason as he nudged his head against hers. The rose-gold-haired girl laugh and patted him but then turned her focus back at the white-haired boy. "Oh, come on! I bet you just wanna keep Tsura to yourself, aren't you? You two are awfully close sometimes—"

"Book! Weird book!" Tsura tried to grab the bible that Masakazu kept high from his hold.

"—uh, well as close as Tsura can be personally to someone..."

Suzuka wondered what happened before she arrived here, specifically with Himiko and Tsura. She did knew that the later ran off somewhere while Himiko ran after him. Natsumi tried to find the two, if she remembered correctly—she wondered if they met. As she was about to ask, her eyes wandered to the building that stood tall behind the three people in front of her—and she froze.

A sign that said "Office" was hung on the wall right next to a single wooden door. A shovel propped itself on the wall, the lower part stabbed into the ground. The building had no windows at all; there was no way any light could come in, which explained why she woke up in the darkness—

—right, this was the place where she first woke up inside of a coffin.

"This was the place where all of us first woke up, am I wrong?" The student's gaze turned from the building to the gravedigger (did he check the graveyard yet?) who was now putting both of his hands behind his back as he started to walk towards her. A quick glance of her surroundings revealed Himiko rubbing the head of a giggling Tsura. "I left Inu-kun in the care of Ohno-kun—hopefully she won't repeat her mistake again."

Suzuka just nodded as her gaze locked itself onto the 'office' once again. The gears inside her head rotated one by one and her mind searched for the memory that she hadn't lost; of the time she woke up, finding herself both inside of a coffin and surrounded by coffins, as she met the first person she found here—

(Ono... Muga...san...)

As though she had said her thought out loud, a sudden row of something banging on something disturbed the silent comfort when she retreated into her head. Everyone's eyes were attracted to the source as if bees to honey; it was coming from behind the door of the office.

"Ah...!" Suzuka gasped in surprise as her eyes widened—had the boy she first met kept being in the building ever since she got out? This reaction was obviously one of recognition, as both Masakazu and Himiko turned to look at her. Tsura meanwhile had taken it his role to act clueless at everything as he simply tilted his head at the office. "That's—inside... I think it's someone...? Since we all came from that building, it would be—it'd be the logical explanation, yes..."

"But that's kinda weird, right? Didn't we all manage to get out by ourselves?" The question from the ballerina made perfect sense—it was weird that someone would bang on the door because it meant they couldn't get out... Just like when Ono Muga at first was unable to get out from his own coffin. This proved to be more evidence to the student's theory of him being the one inside, but there wasn't any other concrete evidence to prove that her theory was right. If only the one inside could talk—

This was strange, Suzuka realized. When someone was trying to get out from a locked place, wouldn't they try screaming for help first—just like the unknown boy did before? Was the building soundproof? But if so, it didn't make sense that the sound of someone banging on the door would be heard... Her fingers wiggled and she took a deep breath, walking closer to the door that was surprisingly still under all the constant banging. She grabbed the doorknob with her lips pursed; she needed to prove that her theory was right—that Ono Muga was the one inside.

(Only one way to find out... Here I go.)

* * *

 **More A/N:** And that's that! I really hope I did well with this chapter, haha. Again, I'm really sorry for taking such a long time to update... I'll try my best to manage my time in uni better so I can write a lot and update more often, promise! Just gotta like, juggle with classes (why did I take forestry again) and writing (for yall and for myself) and marching band (I'm learning to play baritone horn, it's tons of fun!) and everything. Yep, I'll manage somehow. Maybe.

Man, you guys are the best though—honestly, I didn't expect for people to review the interlude I did. Yall are awesome! I'm super happy to see reviews about the update; really, I was grinning the whole time! Reviews made me super happy because I can get feedback on what I did good and wrong, but of course no pressure at all! I'm happy that anyone is actually reading my story at all haha. So yeah, you guys are one of the reasons that I continue writing! So thanks a bunch!

Also, all my thank to **PainX65** and **Lupus Overkill** who helped me with beta and editing this chapter. Gramps, you rock! And Lupus, thanks a lot too! Really appreciated the help, so once more and again, go check their SYOC out guys! They both deserved more readers and reviews, Gramps especially (I swear I'll review one day I'm sorry). Might as well promote more, but if you guys are interested then go check out the later a.k.a. Lupus with his new SYOC, _Danganronpa: Back and Forth_ and go send your characters there! I can say for sure that it's gonna be an awesome story, might be better than this one, haha.

With that all said, let's go to the reviews shall we? Here I go!

* * *

 **PainX65:** Thanks Gramps, I'm definitely taking my sweet time for sure haha. We might for sure—and who knows, the boy might not even be important... yeah I'm not fooling anyone am I. Thanks for the review either way!

 **liammarklh88:** Thanks, thanks! That was my intention, glad it came across. Don't worry, you'll figure your life eventually... kinda. Well, just hope for the best? But hey, there was your kiddo!

 **tobi-is-an-artist-too:** Oh man, I'd love to meet the betting Tobi. I need some hard cash—uh, totally didn't confirm or deny anything. Don't get it? Yeah me neither I'm too tired and sleepy. Rambling is good, don't worry bout it Tobi. And yep, thanks for the advices!

 **TheRoseShadow21:** I did! Thanks Rose! Oh yes cookies good. I guess so, haha. Glad to see you think so. Thanks!

 **Sparkquill:** Fucking yeah I did. Wait so are you reading this story or is this review just for the LOLs. I'm begging you tell me, I need to know.

 **Ziggymia123:** Yes the name is Muga indeed. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? Yeah I do, I know. We'll see if he appeared more (prolly when I got stuck with writing a chapter). Thanks Zigs, that really means a lot to me!

 **Scissor-Snipper:** Thanks! Seems like most people are thinking that it's Muga, really interesting haha. I'll keep my mouth shut for now or less I'll end up spoiling something. Thanks for the understanding!

 **Lupus Overkill:** Oh damn, didn't think that someone would even think of the interlude as interesting, honestly. Maybe, maybe so, maybe not—can't say anything, you can pry the answer from my dead corpse! Please don't actually kill me. Thanks Lupus; hopefully you enjoyed this chapter then.


	8. Prologue 0-5

**A/N:** im so sorry. hopefully this worth the one year wait.

(beta read by **PainX65** , the ultimate helping hand.)

* * *

 **PROLOGUE – A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING [PART #5]**

* * *

(…here I go.)

With the gaze from the other three (two, she changed when she felt someone's gaze leaving her—she guessed that it was Tsuramatsu) people with her, digging into her back, Suzuka took a deep breath before she turned the doorknob of the office. The darkness forced her to squint in order to see what was inside properly, but it wasn't that difficult when the person who had been banging on the door was standing right behind it, still with their hand raised in the air, forming a fist.

"Ah—you're not..." The student trailed and pursed her lips at the sight of the person in front of her. With her theory disproved, she felt somewhat disheartened—and she was quite sure of it too. The scarlet-haired girl who stepped in front of her didn't seem to share the same thought however, as she had a big smile made by her dark-red-lipstick-covered lips, hiding some of the freckles decorating her cheeks as she put her hand down.

"Hey there!"

Suzuka just nodded awkwardly, not knowing what to say. She didn't know this person after all; but then again, it wasn't like she knew how to talk to anyone in general when it came around to small talk. The girl had to be one of her 'classmates' though—she met fourteen of them so far, so this one should be the fifteenth. All the mysteries about Muga aside (did anyone besides her even meet him or was it only her who knew of his existence _here_?), she supposed it would be better to know about the other person who was right in front of her first.

Himiko peeked from behind Suzuka in curiosity, but immediately brightened and stood by her side once she had a clear view of who was in front of them. So it was true after all; the other girl was indeed a part of her class. "Mizuki! Oh, finally—one class rep found!"

The girl's appearance was... overwhelming, to say the least. An unbuttoned, old-styled red-fitted jacket that looked like a suit covered a golden tank top and the upper part of a red A-line maxi skirt, with golden high-heel stilettos raising her already tall figure (the student was sure she was the tallest person she saw so far). Her look was completed by various golden accessories; a necklace with a giant ruby as the centerpiece around her neck, bracelets covering the skin where her jacket didn't, and hoop earrings and studs.

"My name _is_ Mizuki!" The girl nodded in approval with a grin on her face, the red and yellow roses covering her golden floppy straw Easter bonnet rustling a bit. Suzuka could smell the flowers from where she stood; she wasn't sure if they were real or if it was perfume, but the scent was certainly strong. "What was that about class rep though?"

"She's lost her memories too, Kazu!" The student glanced behind her to see Himiko shaking Masakazu by his shoulders, though she needed to tiptoe to reach him. "We found our class rep for one second and the next she was gone!"

"Ohno-kun, I'd recommend you to calm down—"

Before either the graveyard digger could continue or the ballerina could speak up, a laugh cut them both off. As she turned her gaze back at Mizuki, the girl seemed to be laughing; her bangs bouncing as she did so, though the left eye that she hid behind it was still not visible on her round face.

"Sorry, sorry—" the girl cut her own words off with another laugh as she stepped forward, exiting the "office" building. Suzuka moved away a bit when she did, so now everyone was in a circle of some sort, "—I'm not laughing with any bad intentions, promise! I'm just glad to see that none of you seem to be the one who trapped me inside whatever this building is."

"I'm happy to hear that, but at the same time I feel like I was being insulted in a way... Nah. Right…?"

A thought invaded her mind as she recalled the memory back on what happened moments before. They heard knocking, but not a single voice asking for help (if that was the intention, though the girl did say that she was "trapped"). The student looked towards the building they were all in front of before she blinked; the door was closed.

(When did it—who…?)

She stepped forward, making all conversation stop. Several gazes that were digging into her back was uncomfortable (though not anything new) and the girl focused on the door in front of her. She could hear Himiko's bewildered exclamation and Tsuramatsu's… barking? The weird mix of background noises made it easier for her to ease her anxiety somehow though, so she reached the doorknob and twisted it open—

It was locked.

"This building just gives off a bad vibe, right?" Suzuka jumped at hearing Mizuki's voice so suddenly as she quickly looked back at the other girl and nodded silently in agreement; it was after all, the building that kept the coffins they all most likely woke up in. She would still need to ask everyone about that, to prove it. "Well, I'm glad I'm not there anymore! That room was pretty creepy with coffins and everything."

"Honestly! I was really glad when Yui came out from her—uh, thing… though when I found out that she didn't remember anything about our time together at the school…" Himiko trailed as realization seemed to have settled in her. "Speaking of which! Mizuki, since you've lost your memories too, we're gonna introduce ourselves again, okay?"

The other girl accepted the offer with a smile in return. All introductions that were done afterwards were different in their own way; Himiko's energetic one (without her talent like before when she did with Suzuka, which Mizuki surprisingly didn't question about) together with Tsuramatsu's slightly scattered one, Masakazu's calm one, and Suzuka's quiet one. It showed how different this bunch of people were, the student thought.

"So we're all a bunch of Ultimates with some of them losing their memories huh... Interesting!" The scarlet-haired girl laughed but then closed her eyes in concentration. Suzuka was about to wonder what was up when the other girl suddenly snapped her eyes open and looked directly into her eyes, making her freeze in place. "Well, nice to meet you then, The Fool! The name's Nakayama Mizuki, and I'm the Ultimate Psychic!"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **MIZUKI NAKAYAMA / / ULTIMATE PSYCHIC**

* * *

"Psychic..."

The student didn't know if her doubts were voiced clearly when the words came out of her lips, but then she realized that the psychic was looking at her, right in the eyes. She immediately averted her gaze, though it didn't seem to stop Mizuki from doing the same. Trying to distract herself, Suzuka bit her lip and started thinking.

Psychics... were a somewhat sensitive subject with society in general; there wasn't any definitive prove that their powers actually existed—at least, not that the student knew of. Most of the people who claimed to be one were either tricking people for money, or weren't right in the head. She didn't know which one the girl in front of her actually was, but it was suspicious either way.

While most of the girls back in her middle school talked about their fortune from zodiacs on magazines or morning shows, Suzuka had never believed anything related to that. Those were just 'fortune telling' and if it turned out to be true, that would simply be luck. And luck—that was just an external factor that no human can control nor should they be depending on. "Man proposes but God disposes," as Thomas à Kempis wrote in his book.

"Seems like you don't trust me, or at least debating if you can since you look like you're thinking super hard, huh?" Suzuka pursed her lips after hearing what the scarlet-haired girl asked, but didn't say anything, no answer—she wasn't going to tell any lies, not even white ones. Mizuki seemed to realize that she wasn't going to answer, though instead of getting offended like the student thought she would be, the other girl simply laughed. "Don't worry, I get that a lot. I'm a real one though, promise!"

"Promises... They don't prove anything, not... really..." The student trailed off as she fidgeted a bit. It was true; promises were simply words that came from someone's mouth. And words, while they might be promising, didn't guarantee anything—especially not from someone she only just met for about five minutes.

"It is something to believe, however." She jumped a bit once the gravedigger finally spoke up—she forgot that there were other people beside the self-proclaimed (is it really 'self-proclaimed' if Hope's Peak gave the title, she wondered) psychic. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see, Haruzome-kun."

Suzuka blinked when she registered what Masakazu said—she wasn't sure about it, but it sounded like a quote from somewhere. Before she could ask about it to the graveyard digger however, the ballerina spoke up.

"Don't worry Suzuka—Mizuki never broke any of her promises before!"

Her eyebrows furrowed at Himiko's words. "That's—something like that, isn't possible..." She flickered her gaze towards the psychic; the other girl was still looking at her, making her notice the heavy amount of eyeliner around her eyes, complemented by mascara and a little bit of red eyeshadow. "People—no one can be that... good."

"That is true." Mizuki nodded in agreement as she smiled. "I don't know about the "never broke any of her promises" part, but I do try my best in my promises them so you can trust me, The Fool!"

Suzuka remained silent, biting her lower lip. While she might have said something like that, it wasn't like the student was just going to trust her. Trust needed a certain amount of time speaking and being around each other—and even then, you can never really know what was on someone else's mind, so there wasn't any guarantee in trusting someone. Anyone. Her father taught her that, at the very least.

The psychic seemed to take her silence as something and was just going to part her lips when a loud shout made them jump. Suzuka turned her attention away from the psychic to the seemingly panicked Himiko.

"Come on—not again, _again_! I don't want to run anymore!" The ballerina cried out, looking around as the student realized the problem—Tsuramatsu wasn't anywhere in sight; and as Himiko had said "again, _again_ ". The rose-gold-haired girl turned around, shrinking a bit under Masakazu's gaze. "I was keeping an eye on him, I swear! But he's the Ultimate Escape Artist and I'm _not_ the Ultimate Tsura-watcher!"

A raised eyebrow. "I haven't said a thing, Ohno-kun."

"I know you're thinking about it! Probably something sarcastic like—" Himiko cleared her throat and closed her eyes while standing up straight (Suzuka thought she heard a chuckle from Mizuki), before continuing her words with a deep voice, "—Maybe you should've kept _both_ eyes on him then, Ohno-kun". Am I right or am I right, huh!?"

"The longer the time we spent talking, the farther Inu-kun is going to disappear."

"Ack—" the girl with rose-gold hair visibly stumbled on her steps at what the graveyard digger said. She huffed loudly and took ahold of Masakazu's wrist, looking determined as she did. "We're going to look for him, come on!"

Considering how the ballerina didn't find the escape artist when he escaped before this, it would probably be better to ask other people to search for Tsuramatsu as well. Not that she would be much help, or anyone else for that matter—after all, Tsuramatsu was the Ultimate Escape Artist. Hope's Peak wouldn't give the title to anyone for no reason, not even if someone related to him had a connection with the academy.

Then again, sometimes people accused some Ultimates of being fakes simply because they never heard their name or their talent. It wasn't their fault for having their name unknown, or their talent being unusual—that was all Hope's Peak Academy's doings.

(Ultimate Student... is a title. It's a talent. It's not—it's not... something fake.)

The student licked her dry lips as she unclenched her fists (when did she do that?) and shook her head, the view of the ground greeting her sight. She took a deep breath before suddenly freezing up when something popped up in her mind. Otome said something before. Not much, but still something to consider and carefully think about. How the school apparently gave them a form of some sort as an assignment for summer vacation, and _Danganronpa_ —and that either Himiko or "Todd" might know better about it. Speaking of which—

She looked up to the ballerina and graveyard digger, parting her lips as she was about to speak her mind. The words forming on her tongue stopped when she gulped them down; blinking, she realized that the two were already gone. That was… odd. The girl furrowed her eyebrows. Why did she keep forgetting important things? Was this a side-effect of whatever wiped her memories, or was it something completely different...?

Suzuka shook her head. That was another thing to think about later (she should try to find a notebook or something). She remembered that Otome said there was someone else who knew of this "Danganronpa" business, someone named "Todd", so maybe she could ask them instead. After all, she had met fourteen people who were apparently her classmates (Muga's whole role in the class was still a mystery; one she was quite determined to find out what exactly it was all about)—it was just one more person to go. And with her luck of meeting people so far, she would no doubt meet whoever it was.

Still, the thought of gaining more knowledge about their situation didn't stop her face from scrunching up at the thought of seeking out some stranger on purpose.

Now that she thought about everything that had happened so far though, it was just a bit strange that she conveniently met all of fourteen (and most likely fifteen soon) of her classmates all in different places. That, and the fact that while they were talking there wasn't any disturbance from someone else—no one suddenly stumbling upon them, or cutting their conversation with intentions of joining in. It was as if someone was trying to give them enough time to get a grip of each other's personality, without others overshadowing the ones currently under the spotlight—

"Um, The Fool? Are you okay?"

"Ah—" the student jumped in surprise when she heard the psychic—right, there was still the other girl here. Mizuki smiled and put her hand down; maybe she was waving her hand in front of her face before? She didn't notice. "Uh—did you, um, need anything from me...?"

"No, no!" The other girl simply shook her head, laughing. "I was just worried since you didn't say anything. You seemed to be thinking pretty deeply though. Mind telling me what's up?"

Suzuka blinked, not understanding the question. "What's up—um, it's the sky?"

There was a silence for a few seconds before Mizuki killed it completely as she suddenly looked away and snorted before she then laughed with an increase in volume with every second that passed. The light-brown-haired girl shrunk a bit as she took a step back, fidgeting a bit—she didn't understand why the girl was laughing.

"S-sorry—" the girl was laughing a bit too hard; she could see tears in her eyes, "—I was, u-um, just wait for a bit—"

She did just that after taking another step backwards. Not knowing what was going on—it felt like the girl was ridiculing her. Maybe she was; the student wouldn't know unless she asked. It took a solid minute until the psychic calmed down completely and wiped the tears away with a chuckle.

"A-ah—sorry about that... You really took me by surprise, The Fool." Her eyes twinkled in amusement as if realizing something. "Your card fits your personality! Oh gosh, it's been a while since I laughed that hard... I take it that you took that "What's up?" literally, huh?"

"I—of course...?" Suzuka looked at the girl. That didn't help in answering her confusion at all. "Were you laughing because of that? That—that I took the question... literally?"

"Well yeah! I was asking about your feelings, actually—" the student's cheek burned at this and once more, she shrunk, "—ah, it's fine, it's fine! It wasn't a bad thing, sorry for laughing like that... I didn't mean anything bad, promise! You can laugh at me instead for payback, if that'll make you feel better!"

"N-no, I don't... want to do that..." She really didn't; laughing wasn't something she really did, and it won't make her feel better either. "Um, so—you were asking about… uh, my feelings...?"

"Uh huh!"

"I thought... psychics would know everything... Like—with telepathy, and mind reading..." Suzuka mumbled quietly, especially the last sentence. Not that she truly believed it, but it was always good to check. Her thoughts were hers alone, unless she voiced it out loud to other people.

"Ah—no, no." Mizuki shook her head together with a wave of her hand, laughing awkwardly. "I'm not the kind of psychic with that kind of stuff you just mentioned... I'm more of a fortune teller, with tarot cards and stuff? I'm not that great!"

"I... see..." That made more sense. A school like Hope's Peak wouldn't accept some psychic with powers that were still unproven—at least, she hoped not. It was still weird to know that they gave her that title though. "Why—um, your title... why wasn't it Ultimate Fortune Teller, then...?"

A shrug. "Honestly, I have no clue either." But then the psychic (fortune teller?) chuckled and tilted her head. "Maybe I'm just that amazing that _the_ Hope's Peak Academy mistaken my talent for fortune telling as a real psychic ability?"

Suzuka wasn't sure what to say to that—agreeing didn't really sit well with her, as that would mean her school wasn't all that competent after all, and disagreeing would require her to elaborate. So she just nodded her head, but thankfully the other girl was satisfied with that.

"I'll try to think about it some more—maybe there would be someone from the school I could ask! Once I found the answer I'll let you know, is that okay?"

"That's—yes. That's alright."

"Got it! Hmm… Well, I should go do more exploring and meet the others. I am apparently one of the class representatives after all." The student nodded in agreement this time as Mizuki's eyes twinkled, she snapped her fingers. "Have you met everyone, The Fool? Do you want to explore together?"

"Um."

It seemed that the psychic _might_ actually be able to read her feelings (or maybe it was how she immediately turned her head away), but she just chuckled afterwards. "I'll take that as a no, then."

"I prefer to be alone," she muttered while ducking her head. Then realizing a few seconds later that her words sounded quite rude as the other girl didn't respond, she opened her mouth again. "Ah—um. No offense…?"

"None taken, don't worry! I understand wanting some time alone. Well then, I'll see you later?"

She reluctantly said _yes_ in return, though it wasn't because she disliked Mizuki in person. Being in a crowd of people was definitely something that could make her stomach flip at the thought of people touching her even accidentally, but talking one on one with someone was much worse somehow. She couldn't really understand why her little brother enjoyed it very much—though she supposed they had less in common and more in differences in terms of their interests.

(Maybe that's why _he_ —no. Not now.)

As Mizuki had disappeared from her sight while she was deep in her thoughts again, Suzuka started walking towards the other place she hadn't visited yet (she could see a chicken coop of some sort near the place she intended to visit, but that would have to wait); the cemetery. The place was surrounded by a high stone wall, like with the playground last time, but it was a lot higher; an old-fashioned, rusting gate with vines wrapping themselves around the bars, splitting it into two sides with one of them opened, pushed inside. Similar to the other building that she saw before, a plank of wood was resting on the wall with "Cemetery" written on it.

As she stared intently at the plank of wood, wondering that it seemed newer (cleaner, without any vines or mold on it) than any other wooden signs she had seen in this place, someone suddenly bumped against her. The bump was like a sudden static electricity shock since she was so focused inside her mind that she immediately stumbled with her steps before falling onto the ground.

"Oh crap—"

Her palms scratched against the surface of the ground, though it didn't scratch as much as it probably made tiny, round indentations from small rocks. What greeted her when she looked up at the source of the voice was the sight of a boy with short dark brown hair that was spiky on top (her first thought was that it looked more like a bed hair rather than something styled).

"Sorry—ah, Suzuka...san! I'm really sorry! You just suddenly appeared in front of me so uh, yeah—" he offered her a hand while leaning down a little bit, smiling apologetically though his hazel eyes twinkled with humor, "—need a hand?"

For the first few seconds in complete shock, all the student could only think of was how did the stranger know her name and why did he add the suffix so awkwardly, but then she noticed the moderately tanned skin, Caucasian face, and tall height—it was about the same as Mizuki, if she had to guess. Suzuka tried to trace her memory back to when she saw the big headstone; all sixteen names with hers included and fourteen people she met so far, there was just one more name; a foreign one.

She licked her lips before hesitantly parting her lips and asked, "Fey...san...?"

The boy's face immediately brightened and he scratched his head while laughing. "Ah, so you're one of the few people who still have their memory! That's good—"

"No—I... um, I don't really remember anything..." she trailed off as she shook her head to both his words and the extension of help. The student lifted herself up with a push of her hands and brushed the dust off from both her palms and the back of her black skirt, flinching a bit when the small rocks fell from the indentations now apparent on her palms.

"I see!" The still bright voice honestly surprised her, and it seemed to be showing on her face because after that the boy smiled somewhat reassuringly at her. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll remember everything again soon enough!"

Suzuka just furrowed her eyebrows. "How—um, you don't know that... Not for sure."

Her eyes flickered towards the boy's clothing. He was wearing a black T-shirt, covered by an evergreen flannel shirt with dominant navy blue stripes and some white ones. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned and the sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, with a pocket on the left side. Then there was his jeans, with what seemed to be small holes forming at the knees, covering his white socks together with a pair of maroon tennis shoes.

He smiled and put his fist on his chest, puffing the latter out. "I might not know, but I'll try my best to help you and everyone to regain your memories! That's just one of my duties as the class representative."

Right—there were two class representatives. Not an ordinary thing since all the school she attended before Hope's Peak had only one person as the class representative, and the other as the vice representative. She wondered who was the vice representative here—or was there two of them as well? None? Either way, knowing things was important. And speaking of knowing things—

"Um, Fey-san?" The boy looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a hum. She took that as a sign to continue. "You—Fujiwara-san said something... about knowing this game called "Danganronpa"...?"

His eyes lit up with recognition. "Right! The form was kinda suspicious, considering what Danganronpa is all about... That's why I've been trying to find an exit from this place, ever since I remembered about it."

"That's—um, can you tell me more...?" Suzuka asked, though still fidgeting. While interacting with people wasn't really her forte, if it's to gain knowledge—for that, she would do anything. "About this... um, Danganronpa... game."

"Well, you were always the one who wanted to know stuff, Suzuka-san! I don't mind, though it's probably a long explanation so don't think of me as boring yeah?" The student just nodded; she didn't care, not really. As long as she got what she wanted, it was all good. "Okay—so first of all, Danganronpa is visual novel game... well there's other stuff, but it won't make sense unless I tell you what the story is about."

He took a deep breath and scratched the back of his neck. "I'll keep it short and simple; it's a game where sixteen Ultimate students from Hope's Peak Academy got kidnapped and were told that the only way to escape was to kill their classmates."

Suzuka felt like her heart had stopped. Did Otome not know about this? She didn't think this 'game'... Danganronpa, being in the form they were told to fill out was something comforting at all. "W-what's—Hope's Peak Academy, you say...? Hope's Peak—our school...?"

"The one and only." He laughed somewhat nervously, not that the student noticed. She had much more going on in her mind right now. "Apparently it was made by some people who... let's just say, don't really like Hope's Peak all that much. So that's why they made it into that kind of setting... I guess you could say it's a form of making fun of the school, huh?"

"But—the story... it's just like—"

The boy nodded, his expression grim. "Our current situation, yeah? Like I told you, that's why I've been trying to find an exit. Gotta get everyone to safety since I'm a class rep. Still, even though I'm the one with memories between the two of us, I can't remember when we got here, or why..."

The gears in Suzuka's head started to turn. So despite having memories of everyone being classmates, none of them actually knew the reasons they were brought here, when were they brought here, and how. She still couldn't understand why anyone would even erase their memories in the first place; of them being classmates, of all things. Not the memories of their talent, family, friends—not even their whole self as a whole.

(They want to achieve something... but what?)

"Suzuka-san?" She blinked in surprise and looked up when the boy waved his hand right in front of her face. He smiled and laughed a bit. "Sorry, it seemed like you were deep in thought, but I'm gonna reintroduce myself—I just remembered that I haven't done that, sorry. But that's okay with you, right?"

The student had nodded in reflex before she had even realized it, but it wasn't like she was going to deny the offer. She may remember all the info from the headstone, but it didn't give out much. And it was always informative to see how people introduce themselves, after all.

"I'm Todd—um, here it's Fey Todd, I guess. Feel free to just call me Todd if you want to!" The boy gave her a cheerful grin as a greeting, putting his hand on his waist where a zip-up red sweatshirt rested around it. "I'm the Ultimate Cross Country Runner, and the male class representative for Class 99-A!"

* * *

 **GAME CONTESTANT REGISTERED**

 **TODD FEY / / ULTIMATE CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER**

* * *

 **ALL THE CONTESTANTS HAVE BEEN MET**

 **PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT...**

* * *

As Suzuka was just about to introduce herself (before remembering that Todd already knew her name and most likely her talent as well), a buzzing sound with static filled the air. Both she and him looked towards the source of it; the tall loudspeakers surrounding the plaza were all buzzing.

" **Mic test, mic test—"** a deep voice suddenly filled the air, "— **one, two three. Is this working? Oh yeah, that amazing voice of mine definitely reached here. Anyways! All game contestants, proceed to gather in the plaza! Mandatory, this is mandatory I tell you! Go right now!"**

There was another buzz of static before it cut off, leaving them with silence. They both looked at each other; Todd was wearing an expression of curiosity and while she couldn't see her own face, she was sure that her expression showed something similar... or perhaps something completely different.

"Suzuka-san?"

The student could feel her heart beating ever so quickly, each beat hammered against her chest as if her heart was about to burst out and escape from all this. It wasn't panic or anxiety (well maybe there was a bit of both there)—the complete opposite; it was excitement. From what they both heard, it seemed like the one who called them to gather up was the one responsible for this whole thing. And with that said, logically thinking, they should explain what was going on.

(We'll learn—about what's going on...!)

"Su-zu-ka-sa-n...!"

"Ah—" she jumped in surprise and looked back towards a worried-looking Todd. "What—what's wrong...?"

"Let's go there now, yeah? I can explain some more about Danganronpa while we walk, if you still want to listen," the cross country runner paused for a second before showing her a grin. "Unless you want a race? You weren't so bad at running last time we did so!"

She blinked without a thought. That wasn't something she expected to be hearing from people who seemed to remember them being classmates in Hope's Peak. "I... raced you?"

"Well, to be exact, we were in the same group for the 50-meter run for the annual fitness test at the school." That made more sense. Todd laughed, probably at seeing her relieved expression. No one can blame her though—it would be odd to hear that her 'past self' who others knew before was completely different from who she was now. "You came second after me, out of four! So yeah, you were pretty good, Suzuka-san."

"I am... the Ultimate Student." She nodded, taking a second to lick her dry lips before she started speaking again. "If it's about school-related things—I don't... intend on losing to anyone else."

"That's the spirit!" Todd gave her a thumbs up before he scratched his chin, seemingly thinking. He started walking in front of her and smiled before waving her over; the student followed several steps behind, but the boy didn't say anything about it. "But the whole Danganronpa business aside for now, I'm pretty sure we'll get some answers from whoever called us from those loudspeakers, don't you think so too? I wonder if it's someone from the school..."

"Logically thinking... that should be the conclusion." Suzuka nodded in agreement; it was slightly relieving that someone also thought the same.

The two of them didn't talk after that—though to be fair, it was just about a minute walk towards the center of the plaza where the balance scale (which was still unbalanced) statue sat. Another minute of waiting was enough for other people to start to come out and show themselves—first starting with the botanist she hadn't seen in a while now.

"Kara-san!" The cross country runner jogged towards the girl with pale blonde hair, smiling with relief. Suzuka watched them from a distance. "I'm glad to see you! Did you manage to find anything?"

Takara shook her head, her face slightly scrunched up. "The plants—they're all as real as they can be. I need more time to be able to narrow down this place we're supposed to be in from the plants living here."

"That's good! Good job Kara-san, thanks for doing that!" Todd patted the other girl's shoulder while smiling. She just nodded without saying anything else and walked away, passing Suzuka on the way, and the student assumed she stopped on the other side of the big statue of balance scale—she can't be sure, the girl wasn't visible anymore. "I'm going to talk a bit with her. See you later Suzuka-san!"

The boy ran before Suzuka could even answer, his talent showing as he easily caught up to the botanist as he started talking to the other girl.

"Ah—Haruzome!"

The mentioned girl flinched, recognizing the voice. She couldn't ignore someone who was calling her however, so she turned around to look at Sho—together with Masaaki, to her surprise. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Otome, Yui, and Kaemi walking together (the prosthetist was looking at her notes while being dragged as the other two spoke with one another) towards the direction where Todd and Takara were. Someone cleared their throat and made Suzuka focused back on them; Masaaki was looking at her.

"Senoue has something to say."

"Yeah, uh..." the construction worker put his hand on the back of his neck, looking away from her. "I... wanna apologize for shouting at you earlier—you're probably just curious like usual, and uh... you also lost your memories too, so you gotta be confused—a-anyway, the point is just... I'm sorry, yeah?"

Suzuka bit on her lower lip as she looked at the bowing boy in front of her. It wasn't as if she was mad or scared (it was more shocked than anything), nor did she need any apology; she didn't know how to react to this situation because no one had gone out of their way to actually apologize to her for something they did. Her eyes darted towards Masaaki in reflex, the doctor still staring at her without actually saying anything.

She licked her dry lips once more and parted them slightly before she had closed them again. This was uncomfortable more than anything, especially with the several stares she could feel from the others. "Y-you don't need to keep bowing, Senoue-san… It's fine."

"Yeah?" The construction worker lifted his head and gave her an uncertain smile. She just nodded as he then gave her his laugh in return, as his smile grew wider. "Alright, yeah! It's not that big of a deal after all—"

A raise of an eyebrow from the doctor.

"A-anyways, thanks! I'm just gonna—oh, Koizumi! Kimura and Inu too, huh? Good to see y'all okay!"

The student watched as Sho jogged away and waved at the recently arrived Luka who was with Natsumi and—ah, there was Tsuramatsu, his chain being held by the latter. Suzuka thought the nature photographer glanced at her way for a second but when she blinked the other girl was already talking to the construction worker about something she couldn't hear. She wondered if this place was that big—it was a wonder how the escape artist could keep wandering off somewhere and keeps getting found by different groups of people.

She was about to turn away from the formed crowd, only to stop when she saw Masaaki still standing where he was. They both just stared at each other in silence; her being more nervous than the boy (and not actually looking at him at all). She jumped when she heard a familiar cry and looked behind the doctor to see Himiko rushing towards Tsuramatsu, with Masakazu walking calmly right behind her.

"Haruzome."

"A-ah—yes?"

"I..." The boy with mint-hair paused, seemingly collecting his words. He suddenly bowed deeply, making her confused but also flustered; the stares from people was back. "I'd like to apologize for not stopping Hijikata from doing… _that_. It was simply rude and awful of me to just watch."

"N-no, it's—it wasn't really y-your fault…"

Masaaki stood up properly again, a frown on his face. "Still, I should've noticed something was wrong earlier." A sigh. "However, it is a relief that you're fine now."

Suzuka just nodded. She wouldn't really say that she was fine (between the information she received from Todd to the nerves that was building up in anticipation of meeting the person responsible for bringing all of them here) but she didn't want to prolong this conversation any longer—or remember what happened at all. While being the Ultimate Student required her to have a great memory, she wasn't particularly keen on remembering anything that happened in the daycare building.

"My, you've all gathered here already. I suppose we're the last couple."

As if bees to honey, her thoughts seemed to have invited a familiar flamboyant voice. She tried her best to not look at both Masaaki and the person who owned the voice, but the whispering that started buzzing around her made her curiosity win over her own self-restraint. The girl took a quick glance at the source of the voice from before and her eyes widened at the sight that greeted her.

(That's—Ono. Ono Muga!)

Standing right beside Ichiro was the boy with wine red hair, laughing awkwardly while scratching the back of his neck as everyone's gaze seemed to be focused on him. From here, she could see a white goat head symbol on the back of his black fur-lined jacket. There was a weirdly tense air coming off from some of the others (more so from the ones with memories of their school life rather than the ones that didn't have them, her included). Suzuka saw Otome putting her cheek against her palm with wide eyes in the corner of her eye, and also Himiko and Masakazu sharing a glance before they looked back to the latest arrival.

Suddenly there was a loud cough, and the gaze was redirected to Todd who put his fist down before he looked straight at Muga. Ichiro, who was standing next to him glanced back and forth between the cross country runner and the mysterious boy with an amused smile, though he didn't say anything and kept quiet. There was a tense silence happening as people waited for someone to say something, anything—and the male class representative delivered.

"Are you the one who called all of us here?"

"Huh…?" Muga blinked, before he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He looked at Ichiro as if asking for help, but the other boy simply kept his smile and silence. "Uh, wasn't everyone told to gather in the plaza? I was just following the instruction…"

"But I've never seen you before, at all!" Himiko exclaimed loudly as she pointed at him. "Isn't everyone trapped here all the students of Hope's Peak Class 99-A!? You're the only one who isn't, and I don't think I've seen you around the school either!"

Muga's face turned pale. "H-huh…? Everyone knows each other…?"

"Duh! That's obvious!" Suzuka parted her lips to say that wasn't true because only some of them actually did, but she closed them a second after as she wasn't sure if the truth was worth fifteen pair of eyes moving her way. "We're all classmates, so you're definitely the shady guy here!"

"But Ichiro said he didn't remember anyone!"

"And I _was_ telling the truth, of course." The ten-dancer finally intervened. Muga looked a bit relieved to gain even just one ally, but Himiko continued to persist with furrowed eyebrows.

"But—"

A song cut in whatever it was that Himiko was about to protest about. There wasn't any singing, but the student could easily identify the song with how familiar it was. She was sure the others could too, except maybe Todd who wasn't originally from Japan. Before she realized it, thirty seconds had passed and the song was over.

"That was… Yuyake Koyake, yes?" She nodded at Otome's question.

Yuyake Koyake—it was a song that was always played at 5pm every day, to signal that it was time for students to go home. You can usually hear the song near schools, but it wasn't strange to hear it while you were walking near the city hall or official buildings either. The loudspeakers that were spread out, circling the whole plaza was most likely to make sure everyone can hear it no matter where they were in this village.

" **Finally quiet, huh? Man, you guys sure are a loud bunch! And they called** _ **me**_ **dramatic!"** A voice crackled from the tall loudspeakers around them—the same voice that called them here. " **So, are y'all done? I really don't want to waste my time over you guys—I have tons of other fans who are waiting for me after this, so be quiet and listen like good kids you should be!"**

"'Other' fans…?" Suzuka blinked. Fact aside that she didn't know who was talking and thus wouldn't be able to be their 'fan', they seemed to be implicating that there were other people in the same situation as them. Like—

(" _But—the story... it's just like—"_

 _The boy nodded, his expression grim. "Our current situation, yeah? Like I told you, that's why I've been trying to find an exit. Gotta get everyone to safety since I'm a class rep. Still, even though I'm the one with memories between us, I can't remember when did we get here, or why..."_ )

 **"I said quiet, pigtail!"** She flinched at the mention and the gaze turned her way, looking down at the pavement under her to avoid eye contact. **"Geez, kids these days… no respect for their elders…"**

"Why… not just get straight… to the point?"

Before she even realized it, Natsumi was already next to her, though the nature photographer kept her distance and stood closer to Masaaki, who was now openly staring at her. Suzuka looked away and focused on the cackling voice, no matter how unnerving it was. She did want to find out what this was all about and why she apparently lost her memories, but all the 'voice' brought up so far was a sense of anxiety and dread building in her flipping stomach.

(" _Ah—it is the same for me as well, so please do not worry much about it...!" Natsumi cut in with a louder voice than her usual one; the forceful tone threw Suzuka off guard, though that was a good thing since the girl's pale complexion turned back to her fair one. "This is... quite worrying, however. We're both trapped somewhere we do not know... And we do not have... any recollection of any previous events that could possibly lead to this situation…"_

 _"The school kindly gave us quite the intriguing assignment for summer vacation, to not bore us with just simple homework, perhaps…" The student perked up when she heard the word 'assignment' and looked right at Otome, suddenly looking more curious than she already was. "We were told to fill a form with questions regarding our… personal stance, so to speak. Although there was that one particularly peculiar section..."_

 _He took a deep breath and scratched the back of his neck. "I'll keep it short and simple; it's a game where sixteen Ultimate students from Hope's Peak Academy got kidnapped and were told that the only way to escape was to kill their classmates."_

Is this… Danganronpa…?)

The voice cackled louder, if it was even possible. **"Of course, of course! Well, I won't waste** _ **your**_ **time either then, lady** _ **bug**_ **. Get it? Because—ow!"** The sound of something hard hitting flesh was heard and Tsuramatsu whined for some reason. **"...What the fuck are you doing here, huh? I told you to wait outside! ...What? ...I'm not spoiling shit! Did you eavesdrop? …Like hell that's not important! ...More importantly, how dare you hit your boss like—"**

"...what happened?" Yui asked the question everyone was wondering about. Suzuka wished someone could answer that, because she would like to know too and currently she didn't have the energy to think up any sort of answer herself. Her heart was beating faster and faster, together with the sweat that was forming on her temple.

It seemed like the 'voice' was arguing with someone else—sounds of things breaking start to fill the whole area. All the noises were making it look like all of this was a joke of some kind (and someone _did_ indeed snort at the profanities that was uttered from the loudspeakers), though the student didn't think to look at who it was. No, she can't even think to _think_ right now. For no particular reason, goosebumps were appearing all over her arms. Even though she wasn't cold. Even though she wasn't excited. Even though she wasn't scared.

Even though there was nothing wrong at the moment.

 **"Ahem. Excuse you. That was just a cockroach, so don't worry about it! Anyways—**

 **"Welcome to the game!"**

( _..."I'll keep it short and simple; it's a_ _game_ _where sixteen Ultimate students from Hope's Peak Academy got kidnapped and were told that the only way to escape was to kill their classmates."_ )

"I've been listening you talking but what the hell are you even on about? A game?" Sho took a step closer towards the loudspeaker closest to him, though it looked less intimidating than it would be if he was walking towards a real person they can see. "Like one of those stuff on tv? A, uh… reality show? Is that what this is?"

"I do not watch much television, much less this 'reality show'… does a situation like this ever happened in those show, Nakayama-kun?" Masakazu inquired to Mizuki, who was standing next to him.

"Well, a reality show is basically a tv show where a cast was left to do what they want in a place that was provided by the TV crew, more or less." Mizuki crossed her arms and nodded, eyes closed. "But still, a reality show… That does make sense, The Chariot. I don't think that is what's going on here though."

"The cards telling you that?"

The psychic smiled, but then her expression suddenly turned quite serious. "That, and the fact that there's no TV crew to be found anywhere. I think if they were even one person here, one of us would've noticed it already."

 **"Well that's because this isn't a reality show, dumbasses!"** The voice suddenly cut in, making everyone flinch with the static that came with the shrilling. **"Really, I thought one of you was the Ultimate Student or something—shouldn't they be super smart? Geez, what a bummer! And even one of you looked like she isn't listening at all! Pigtail, that's who! Hey, listen to me!"**

"Haruzome-san…? Um, are you… alright…?"

Suzuka blinked and looked straight at Natsumi, the ultimate nature photographer was furrowing her eyebrows as her gaze flickered between her and something or someone behind her. She could feel the presence of Masaaki behind her. No, it wasn't just _a_ presence—a gaze was on her again. The voice even stopped and the feelings that were building in her bubbled over and threatened to spill out like an overheated water.

"—Haruzome-san?"

The student blinked and licked her lips. "S-sorry. I'm listening."

 **"You'd better be or I'll make you regret it! Anyways, where was I… Right, the game!"** She shuddered involuntary once she heard the word again, but everyone else seemed to have their attention fixed on the voice once more. **"It's so easy even people like y'all can do it. There's four other district like this and they all form into a circle with a tower in the middle—you just have to reach the fifth and final district, and then climb the tower to escape! Aren't I such a kind game master?"**

"Tower, you say?" Todd stepped forward and scratched his chin. "But I searched the whole place and I didn't see any tower here!"

 **"Well, obviously—if it was visible from the start, you'd be trying to get there right?"** There was a pause before the voice cackled again. **"I don't want to be disturbed by a bunch of kids when it's my break time, nope. Just wait for a bit and you won't be so blind anymore."**

The sun was setting. Suzuka had stared as her shadow started to grow longer and longer in front of her, right before it disappeared under the evening sky. She realized that there weren't any street lamps or light sources anywhere in this plaza. None of the buildings were even lit—when she checked them out, it was still around morning to noon so she didn't think to check if the lightbulbs were still functioning, or even there at all. This place was, after all, a village. An abandoned one to boot. Still, was the voice from the loudspeaker expecting them to live in the darkness every time night came?

It took only a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness because it wasn't completely dark (most likely due to light from stars)—and by then, people were already making a commotion. A flash of light appeared out of nowhere right next to her and the click of shutter made her jump as she turned to look at Natsumi, who looked apologetic as she put her camera down and flexed her hand.

"My apologies, Haruzome-san." The nature photographer bit her lower lip, putting on a small smile. "I could not help… but to take a picture. Is that really a man-made structure…?"

"Um," Suzuka started, and hesitated to continue, considering the gaze Natsumi focused on her after she opened her mouth—but she can't be the only one not seeing the tower herself. She needed to know. "Can I—um, do you mind… if I take a look at the picture?"

"Oh! Yes… of course. I don't mind." A smile was sent her way, but also together with an inquisitive glance that the student tried her best to not acknowledge. "Here, would you like to hold it…?"

She shook her head. "It's fine. I'll just take a quick look."

And a quick look she did, though it was enough. Even if it was just for a few seconds looking at the picture, the tower was certainly worth the commotion the others were still causing, though now with less shocked shouts and more disbelieving and amazement discussions amongst each other. There was certainly a big difference between the village's wooden everything, and the smooth white material that constructed the tower. It looked like Natsumi did her best to look up as high as she could to take a whole entire picture of the tower, but even then she still couldn't capture the top of it. Still—

"How come… no one has seen it until now?"

 **"That's a good question!"** The voice managed to make her jump and almost fall when she flinched after accidentally brushing shoulders with Masaaki who hadn't said a single word. She forgot he was nearby. **"Almost as good as "how come handy got a prosthetic arm?", I'd say!"**

There was only one person she'd connect with the word "prosthetic" that was currently present here—and true enough, everyone else (or well, the ones who didn't have their memories completely wiped) also turned their attention to the prosthetist who didn't seem to be aware of their stares at all. Otome who was next to her lightly tapped her on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear once she blinked.

"Oh… right." Yui looked around her, taking in all the curiosity. Then she smiled. "Sometimes I forget that having a prosthetic limb isn't a normal thing. Sorry."

Someone snorted at that (it sounded suspiciously close by but she couldn't tell if it was Natsumi or Masaaki) and it seemed that it was all that needed to take away the tension everyone seemed to be holding onto before. One laugh, two laugh—eventually most of them did it, though not her. Not Luka either who kept her head down, nor Takara who seemed to be thinking about something. Her eyes met with Ichiro who smiled as he had his hands on Muga's shoulders, who didn't seem to be listening to anything. But everyone else was laughing and chuckling, was happy—

 **"Haha. Funny, very. I hope you didn't forget I'm still here and watching y'all laugh like you don't have to murder someone to get to the next district and every other one after that."**

—and the voice started speaking again, reminding them of reality.

"D-did you— did you just said… m-murder!?" Muga nearly shrieked.

This time Natsumi stepped forward to the nearest loudspeaker. "What… are you talking about?"

 **"Right—haven't gotten to that part yet."** Their voice was very monotone and bored now, and as much as Suzuka hated to admit it, she would choose their way of speaking before this. **"Well, you gotta go to the final district yadda yadda to escape, murder someone to proceed from one district to another, something something. Easy peasy."**

"Don't mess with us! That's enough with the jokes already!"

"Y-yeah! What Todd said!"

"Are we really—"

"Of course not! That's just dumb!"

The voice actually sighed this time at the commotion. **"I'm not in the mood for this anymore. If you can't believe my words, then action will do I guess. Geez, and I thought you'd be fine because you have like ten murderers there."** Suzuka couldn't help but shudder at that—they must be joking. That, or they were trying to make them suspicious of each other. She wasn't so sure with the tone. **"No way I'm doing this twice—I only have one spare to kill, so you better all see this or I'm gonna have to get someone else… Anyway, let's get this started before someone screams bloody murder besides your homeroom teacher. Not that you can hear her."**

"Wha—"

"S-Sensei!? Where!?"

"The ground..."

She could feel shaking underneath her, throughout her whole body. Her sight wobbled slightly and she focused them enough to see the slightest movement with the balance scale statue. The left side of the scale that was on the ground lifted up as seconds passed, and attached to the bottom of the scale was what seemed to be a black box—no, there was a glass panel that let them see what was inside.

(That's—)

"Sensei!"

A woman with pale blue hair styled into a plait was shaking hard, red eyes darting left and right as water started to fill up to the tip of her beige ankle boots. Her feet and arms were both strapped on the chair she was sitting, disabling any movement she could make to escape. Once she managed to get a hold of the sight of them though, she opened her lips and started screaming for help—or at least Suzuka thought it was. There wasn't any sound at all from the box but that didn't stop some of the others to rush over and started banging on the glass panel.

"We'll help you Sensei, please hang in there...!"

"Sho, kick the glass with me! Everyone else move!" Todd screamed out the order as Himiko stepped back to where Otome was standing. Together with the other boy they kicked each side of the glass panel, but it refused to budge at all. " _Damn it!_ This isn't funny! Tsura, come here!"

Tsuramatsu scurried over, almost hitting himself against the box with how fast he ran. "I'll help! I'll help!"

A snort. **"How will you save your homeroom teacher, huh? I made sure no one can open that box, not even myself. It's useless to use physical force."**

The water was making the woman's dark blue chiffon skirt ride up as it reached her thighs and her expression turned even paler than before. Suzuka didn't remember anything about this "homeroom teacher", but she wasn't exactly keen on letting a person die in front of her even when they were a stranger (she was still silently screaming—). Was there anything that can be done—

"They said useless with "physical force". So there is another way." Everyone turned to look at Takara who looked away in return and didn't say anything else.

 **"Well, at least one of you isn't so dumb after all."**

"Please, just tell us what to do…!" Otome bit her lower lip and shook her head. The water was now soaking the teacher's white blouse, making the undergarments underneath transparent. "If it's within our ability to accomplish it, then—"

 **"It's easy—just let yourself be a** _ **sacrifice**_ **, and switch places with your dearly beloved homeroom teacher."** Silence. She couldn't see the voice's face at all, but somehow it was easy to imagine them grinning deviously right at this very moment. **"What's the matter? I thought you wanted to save your teacher. It's easy, isn't it? Definitely** _ **"within your ability to accomplish".**_ **Just say you'll die in her place, and I'll let her live. Here, let me give you five seconds to think—five."**

Even if she didn't save this woman, someone else would—the ones who remembered her would, wouldn't they? After all, they were the ones with the memories of this "homeroom teacher" of theirs.

 **"—four."**

To her, this woman was just like someone who she passed when walking somewhere. They met, but they had nothing to do with each other.

 **"—three."**

So it was fine. Even when she couldn't help but be transfixed at the still screaming woman as water reached her chin, someone else will save her. There were sixteen of them here. It was fine.

 **"—two."**

Someone else will save her.

 **"—one."**

Someone will definitely—

 **"—zero."**

Suzuka watched in silence as the water picked up its pace, now filling the box much faster. No one was willing to speak and she doubted they could even look at each other, too focused on the woman. She seemed to have given up on screaming and now the words that came out from her lips were slow enough for the student to read.

 _I don't… want to die…_

There was only silence and silence and silence, but somehow she could hear it in her ears—the gurgling of water that came out from the woman's mouth. The weak rattling of the chair. Air bubbles. A corpse floating in the water. Silence.

And a snicker disturbed the silence. **"Time's up! As expected, people are all bark and no bite. Too bad, too bad."**

No one even had the will to reply. She could hear someone hyperventilating, and footsteps hurrying away. The rumbling of the box that went back underground together with the corpse of the woman as the ones near it just stared. A sad whine and licking. It was odd—all she felt was numbness, from her feet all the way up to the top of her hair. Her stomach wasn't flipping anymore and it didn't feel like it was filled with something that was threatening to climb her throat and burst out. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing. She wasn't sure of a lot of things right now, but—

—she was sure that this whole situation wasn't a good thing at all.

 **"** _ **This**_ **is your reality now. Welcome to the game!"**

* * *

 **More A/N:** more a/n is dumb and i don't know what my past self thought. she's dumb. still is. got poll in the profile, and an opening in work. yell at me if it took another year, _please_.

* * *

 **Sharkeye:** he has arrived. todd.

 **RioA:** she'll get her peace one day. preferably not because she died, but one can never be sure. otome has a very great aesthetic and a very convenient hearing. maybe. i'm glad i did him justice! vote for them in fte time to find out ;) the form(tm) is surely important. why else would i put it there; for the meta-ness? naaah. suzuka doesn't want all this people but i can't help it. is mazakazu dad or someone else? is tsura just three dogs stacked on each other? we'll find out one day.

 **PainX65:** AAAAAAAAAAAH IT'S HERE. don't worry, i instantly love otome once i saw her too (totally no bias). a nice guy has flaws too. i'm glad you enjoyed yui and kaemi's interactions! we'll see more of it later, maybe. that's a valid opinion; i shouldn't really write "he's a dad" in the story honestly but i ran out of ideas. gonna do better next time. todd and mizuki is in this chapter! muga is here, and so is everyone.

 **Scissor-Snipper:** todd has been given; sorry for the long wait! having two masas are a bit troublesome when you still can't remember names properly, but i manage somehow. fte can solve mysteries. hopefully. things(tm) are definitely going on here. he didn't do anything this chapter... but who knows. ichiro for ichibro? no?

 **Prince PokePersona:** glad i could do that. she's the most japanese person of every japanese person here. who knows? yui is yui... or a bunch of arms bundled into a person; at this point i don't even know. i'm glad you're liking his portrayal so far. the two characters left are finally here. and thanks, you too.

 **TheRoseShadow21:** HELL YEAH I DID. i should've replied to this like one year ago, but just think that i also did it with this chapter and happy with it. don't think anyone dislikes otome so far, so that's very fair. i can see that you love her a lot. thank you! i'll get sleep, but unfortunately food is a weekend luxury.

 **Ziggymia123:** indeed it is, because this is a (very, _very_ ) late update too. we didn't see much of her this chapter, but the reactions to the killing game definitely won't just end here. the kind one raises death flag just by being kind, but we'll see. the voice(tm) isn't really great at explaining (or just not being a jerk in general), but we'll explore more of that as the story goes on. and here it is, the next chapter!

 **iBlurt:** it is indeed LONG, and i sure love it. i'm bad with approximation but let's just say suzuka passed out for about an hour or so. maybe. weirdos are here, and you'll see more if you vote them for the fte ;) that's an interesting opinion of natsumi; one day, we'll discover the truth. otome is the aesthetic representative of this whole story. kaemi is surviving for now. yui isn't the focus this chapter, but we'll definitely see more of her because no one will die obviously. suzuka is the incident and accident magnet; all protagonists are, unfortunately. glad masakazu is getting some of the love(tm). i hope you're not dead yet, because the update is here!

 **tobi-is-an-artist-too:** THANK YOU. I'LL CONTINUE TO WORK HARD FOR THIS STORY!

 **KISL:** welcome to HELL. don't worry, all humans are lazy. those who aren't are just demons in disguise. they're definitely are considerate and polite, huh. that might change once chapter one starts, but who knows. a bonus then; those who remembers are himiko, tsuramatsu, takara, luka, sho, otome, todd and masakazu. those who don't are suzuka, muga, natsumi, ichiro, masaaki, yui, kaemi, and mizuki. why? who knows, who knows. a test to know their ability to murder someone, totally plausible. great job hope's peak. i'm glad you like the special touch; it's what i like to call my writing style(tm). no need to fear, the last intro has arrived.


	9. Opening

(A wooden frame, poorly made from what seemed to be leftovers sat on a sleek brown surface. A pale hand waved at you, making a shooting pose as an artificial sound of gun being shot left someone's lips while the 'gun' shot at you.

(A red curtain closed the view as the sound of vigorous clapping could be heard. A slip of paper fell from above, hanging from a string on each end, with "Loading..." written on it. Pause; the sound of some clattering was heard—and then suddenly, silence.

(The curtain rose.)

* * *

 **DANGANRONPA: A NEW GAME**

* * *

(The scenery was that of a classroom—

(A paper doll popped up; of a girl with light brown hair, tied in a side pigtail with a light green bow sitting up straight on a chair. Her orange eyes seemed to be flickering towards each sentence written in a thick textbook on her study desk (also a paper doll) as the girl's paper doll was moved right and left by a stick.

(Another paper doll of her shadow suddenly fell down from above, head first. Together with it came a piece of paper that said **_"Suzuka Haruzome – Student / V/A: Atsumi Tanezaki"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(An orange curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a stage—

(A paper doll was flailing; a boy was inside a paper water tank, his silver with black tips hair floating. His silver eyes stared straight up front while he struggled to get out and it was working, slowly—the boy's paper doll suddenly jumped out as the paper water tank fell down together with colorful confetti from above.

(Another paper doll of his shadow suddenly entered, crawling as it moved from left to right. A piece of paper was picked up; written on it was **_"Tsuramatsu Inu –Escape Artist / VA: Yuichi Iguchi"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A silver curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a booth—

(A paper doll was behind said booth; a girl with wavy scarlet hair extended her hand on top of a paper table while several papers displayed words such as "The Fool", "Death", and "Fortune" fell from above. One of her red eyes was staring right at you from under her bangs, and her red lips curled up into a smile.

(Another paper doll of her shadow suddenly jumped out right in front of her as another paper slip slowly slide down, the tarot card "The Tower" on it together with writing that said **_"Mizuki Nakayama – Psychic / VA: Minako Kotobuki"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A golden curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a clinic—

(A paper doll moved left and right; a boy with fluffy mint green hair with a stub on top was crossing his arms as he paced around restlessly. His bright green eyes scanned a board from left to right before staying still and then turning around.

(Another paper doll of his shadow slowly came from the left side of the frame, the shadow laying down on a paper mattress. A page of paper fell down and hung right above it; written on it was **_"Masaaki Takeba – Doctor / VA: Yuichiro Umehara"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A mint green curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a concert hall—

(A paper doll twirled; a girl with rose-gold hair with silver roots styled in big loose curls in a pirouette position smiled brightly to the paper dolls behind her. Her grey eyes twinkled and she turned back, looking towards you.

(Another paper doll of her shadow mirrored her pirouette, faster faster and faster until its hand loosened the hold of the paper it grasped and then the said piece of paper fluttered into the air, showing the writing **_"Ohno Himiko – Ballerina / V/A: Kaede Hondo"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A rose gold curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a ballroom—

(A paper doll danced with another; a boy with fawn brown hair styled in a quiff danced together with his partner. His dark brown eyes gazed at her and nothing else, but still no less than perfect for their performance.

(Another paper doll of his shadow entered from the side, hand in hand with another paper doll. They both twirled around them before dipping as a slip of paper fell onto the ballroom floor, showing the writing **_"Ichiro Hijikata – Ten Dancer / V/A: Hiroshi Kamiya"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A black curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a hill—

(A paper doll watched faraway; a girl with ginger hair in a fishtail braid held it down with one hand as the wind blew. Her misty grey eyes looked down at the camera in her other hand before she suddenly turned around once a paper bug flew past her.

(Another paper doll of her shadow clutched its camera tight against its chest, looking around frantically. Something flew past and hit it before it went flying again, spraying a splatter that formed the writing **_"Natsumi Kimura – Nature Photographer / V/A: Sumire Uesaka"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A ginger curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of an office—

(A paper doll sat on a paper chair; a boy shook his head, messing with his auburn hair as the bangs were swept to the left. His emerald green eyes stared hard at the board on his lap that was filled with scribbles and doodles, finger tapping on it.

(Another paper doll of his shadow suddenly ran into the frame, followed by other paper dolls. They rushed towards it while one of them raised a paper that said **_"Kaemi Yakumo – Therapist / V/A: Kouhei Amasaki"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A light blue curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a garage—

(A paper doll crouched down; a girl came out from a paper cabinet showing her now messy pale pink hair in curly pixie bob and shook her head to get rid of dust. Her light blue eyes looked down at her right arm before she stood up and turned around towards you.

(Another paper doll of her shadow suddenly showed up from behind her, raising its hand up in greeting before a paper car suddenly rushed at them from the side. Smoke came out from its exhaust pipe, showing the writing **_"Yui Ketsuraku – Prosthetist / V/A: Kana Hanazawa"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A yellow curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a cemetery—

(A paper doll stood tall; a boy with messy white hair clutched the cross pendant of his necklace with his hand tight. His red eyes gazed at you half-closed, a smile plastered on his face.

(Another paper doll of his shadow fell down from above together with paper gravel, little by little until they filled the whole frame. Some of the darker gravels formed writing that said **_"Masakazu Boseki – Gravedigger / V/A: Kenjiro Tsuda"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A white curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of an art museum—

(A paper doll observed a paper painting; a girl with black hair nodded at the painting in approval, expression bright. Her dark brown eyes were the only thing seen above the hand fan as she used it to cover her lower face.

(Another paper doll of her shadow suddenly popped up right in front of her, covering her completely. Paper gas started to fill the frame and one line of paper gas had writing in it that said **_"Otome Fujiwara – Yamato-e Artist / V/A: Naomi Oozora"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A wisteria purple curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a construction site—

(A paper doll looked up; a boy with muddy brown hair stared at the unfinished building with a big smile on his face. His muddy brown eyes looked it up and down before turning to look at the paper dolls behind him and raised his hand, others soon following.

(Another paper doll of his shadow crashed from the side, bringing together paper bars that flew everywhere. One of them showed writing from the rust that said **_"Sho Senoue – Construction Worker / V/A: Junichi Suwabe"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A dark purple curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a backstage—

(A paper doll stayed perfectly still; a girl with pale pink hair styled in a loose braid looked down, a microphone was being gripped tight with both her hands until they turned white. One of her golden eyes peeked from under her bangs, unfocused until some paper doll walked in.

(Another paper doll of her shadow suddenly popped up and ran towards one of the curtains that led to the stage. She chase after it immediately, though it proved to be futile as the opened curtain fluttered and showed the writing **_"Luka Koizumi – Ghost Idol / V/A: Reina Kondou"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A pink curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a woodland—

(A paper doll jumped; a boy with short dark brown hair covered in mud and some broken pieces of branches that had gotten stuck on him as he jumped down from a rocky terrain before he jumped up again. His hazel eyes kept looking forward, keeping cautious as he looked for any potential obstacles that could slow him down.

(Another paper doll of his shadow suddenly jumped above him, paper doll after paper doll following right after. They all circled around him and kept running until one of them tripped on a root that had carvings that said **_"Todd Fey – Cross Country Runner / V/A: Jun Fukuyama"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A forest green curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a laboratorium—

(A paper doll was staring; a girl with pale blonde hair gathered into a bun leaned down with her hands on the table to support herself. Her green eyes were fixated on the plant sample under the microscope she was looking into, not disturbed despite anything.

(Another paper doll of her shadow entered with a paper bouquet in hand. It suddenly threw the bouquet, and paper flowers flew all over onto the floor together forming the following: **_"Takara Yoshido – Botanist / V/A: Kanon Nanaki"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A green curtain fell.)

.

(The curtain rose.

(The scenery was that of a room—

(A paper doll was running; a boy with wine red hair that swayed left and right as he kept turning around a few times. His steel eyes were unfocused as he barged into another room, and another, and another and another—

(Another paper doll of his shadow suddenly jumped at him from the side, pushing both of them onto the floor. A small piece of paper floated from above onto the ground with the writing **_"Muga Ono – ? / V/A: Gakuto Kajiwara"_**. Everything fell down and all went silent.

(A wine red curtain fell.)

.

(Five paper dolls fell from above—

(The first one was of a baby bear in a simple black and white color, a pacifier in its mouth and diapers secured by a safety pin on its waist.

(The second one was of a delinquent bear in fiery red, with pompadour-styled blond hair and a long black coat covering chest wrapped with bandages.

(The third one was of an adult bear in dusty green, wearing a crisp suit in all grey with a black fedora hat tipped forward, covering its upper face.

(The fourth one was of a wrinkly bear in mellow blue, wooden cane in hand and a grey flat cap hiding tuft of white peeking under it.

(The fifth one was of a ghost bear in pure white, only with a white kimono and triangle headband without any legs but had a wispy tail.

(A hand suddenly came from the side, flicking all of them away. A cackle was heard, and the hand waved at you before disappearing again.)

(The curtain rose for the last time.)

.

(The group of paper dolls was shown. One to two to three to sixteen—all jumped back up and looking left and right, searching for answers. A paper board suddenly fell down; the group fell silent as their color turned paler.

WISHING FOR FREEDOM?

PROCEED TO THE NEXT AREA

AND REACH THE TOWER OF SHAKYAMUNI

.

.

.

WELCOME TO "MAYOIGA"

THE VILLAGE OF THE LOST

(A paper doll of a tower popped up on the far right as every other paper doll stared at it. All of the paper dolls fell down, replaced by a paper doll of someone's shadow dancing and jumping up and down on all of them.

(The scene ended with another cackle from someone out of the frame—

(And then all was silent.

(The curtain fell.)

* * *

PROLOGUE: A SECOND CHANCE IN MEETING

[END]

* * *

GAME CONTESTANTS REMAINING: 16

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED IN

"CHAPTER ONE: THE REBIRTH OF ULTIMATES"

* * *

 **a/n:** surprise, ye bastards.

i've decided that replying to review one by one no matter how few i got is kinda repetitive so i'm just gonna. reply all of em at once. anyways; thank you for sticking here even after one year of not updating! it's really a relief to find out that people are still reading this. i'm really glad to see that my attempt in describing the chilling atmosphere at the end of chapter 0-5 reached to you.

this might not seem much but well, i'm satisfied with fulfilling my goal of updating before the year ends. s/o for the ultimate helping hand **PainX65 **it's the last day of 2019 here already, so i hope this update can fill in for whatever boredom or free time you have right now. have a nice new year's eve, and early happy new year for everyone! here for a hopefully happy and lucky year.


End file.
